New parent panel to push forward maternity improvements

Tuesday 09 November 2021

Midwives have put together a new panel of volunteers to help push forward improvements to local maternity services – and are looking for more voices from the Portuguese, Polish and LGBTQ+ communities to get involved.

The Jersey Maternity Voices Partnership will enable parents’ feedback to be directly shared with those who provide the services.

Although it is supported by the maternity services and the Health Department, it is an independent group, which allows for “complete transparency, objectivity and impartiality”, as co-chairs Emma Sykes and Michelle O’Neill explained at its official launch yesterday.

Pictured: The partnership aims to give a voice to local parents who have used the maternity services.

The panel was created with the help of local midwives including May Bourne, following the model of more than 100 partnerships in the UK which have been operating since 2016 following the NHS’ ‘Better Births initiative’.

“What prompted me to get this up and running was the fact that we needed to come up to speed with what the NHS were doing and also the recommendations from Better Births, who recognised that all hospitals should have a Maternity Voices Partnership,” May explained.

“I think it’s important because change needs to come from the women themselves who access maternity services and without their services, we don’t really get know what needs to change and how it needs to change,” May explained. “As women who have accessed maternity services, they have the loudest voice and probably one of the best positions to drive change forward.”

Emma, who launched Mums Meet Up in 2019, got involved with the partnership after hearing about it through May, whom she said had been “instrumental” in getting the group set up, and signed up early on.

“I’ve enjoyed every minute of it and I’m looking forward to seeing it go from strength to strength,” she said.

“Following the birth of my daughter, I set up a free mum and baby group, and through this I kept hearing from mums who wanted to share their stories but didn’t really know who to speak to. I could see there was a need for mums to have some sort of platform to give their feedback.”

Michelle also got involved early on, when May was looking for islanders willing to share their experience in early 2020. Keen to share the good things she had experienced during the birth of her first child, as well as learnings, Michelle’s participation was only strengthened by the birth of her second child.

“I felt like I am a person who is confident enough to give feedback, to challenge, to ask questions,” she explained.

“I am not afraid to put my head above the parapet and that’s why you need for service user representatives, because a lot of people don’t feel like that or they are too vulnerable at this particular point in their journey and their feedback is so important in terms of shaping care that if they are not being heard, we are missing huge swathes of important feedback in terms of developing services. I feel because I am strong enough to have a voice and I am confident to use my voice that I have civic responsibility to do so to help other women who don’t necessarily have that.”

Pictured: The panel is looking for members from the Portuguese and polish communities, the LGBTQIA+ community as well as younger parents to make sure it is as representative as possible.

The panel is formed by a team of seven ‘Service User Representatives’, independent volunteers who were interviewed and selected by Maternity Services about two years ago.

While they have a range of different backgrounds, education, careers and skills, Emma explained they are keen to recruit more members – there are a total of 15 spots available on the panel – from the Portuguese and polish communities, the LGBTQIA+ community as well as younger parents to make sure the panel is as representative as possible.

“I think maternity services require continual improvement and that will come with direct recommendations from women,” May explained.

“I think in Jersey we are in a unique island with unique requirements and unique demographics, we have quite a high population of women who don’t speak English, from Portuguese and Polish background to Romanian background and I think we need to represent those voices as well.”

The panel aims to give a voice to local parents who have used the maternity services, and “support the development and improvement of maternity care”.

As Emma explained the JMVP will do more “than simply listen” and will have an active role in driving change by sharing the feedback they collect with the relevant service providers on a regular basis “to ensure small issues do not become bigger problems”.

In addition to surveys on the JMVP’s website, the volunteers will hold face to face chats at coffee mornings and drop-in sessions as well as conduct visits to the maternity department to speak to parents on the postnatal wards.

They will also accept submissions from parents via email, or social media, as well as referrals from Maternity Service providers.

Pictured top: Anna Anderson, Emma Sykes, Michelle O'Neill and Philippa Hyde.