Top picks: Key resources for maternity safety

Summary

At Patient Safety Learning we believe that sharing insights and learning is vital to improving outcomes and reducing harm. That’s why we created the hub; providing a space for people to come together and share their experiences, resources and good practice examples.

We have collated a top picks of hub resources on ‘Safe maternal and newborn care’. Shared with us by hub members, charities and patient safety advocates, they provide valuable insights and practical guidance on a broad range of maternity safety topics. 

Content

1 Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures: Black maternal mental health

The Motherhood Group focuses on creating supportive spaces where Black mothers can find community, resources, and advocacy. In this interview Sandra Igwe, Founder and CEO of the Motherhood Group, reflects on the theme of World Health Day, ‘Healthy beginnings, hopeful futures’, which urges governments and the health community to ramp up efforts to end preventable maternal and newborn deaths, and to prioritise women’s longer-term health and well-being. Sandra highlights key areas for action and the continuation of disparities in Black maternal mental health and explains how a greater focus on lived experience leads to better outcomes for women and babies. 

2 WHO's Science in 5 - Healthy births, saving mothers

What does a mother need to know to ensure that she has a safe pregnancy and delivery? What are some warning signs to watch for? And what are a woman’s rights while going through a pregnancy and delivery? Join maternal health expert Dr Femi Oladapo on Science in 5.

3 Neonatal herpes: Why healthcare staff with cold sores should not be working with new babies

In this blog, Sarah de Malplaquet, Chief Executive and Founder of the Kit Tarka Foundation, draws on her own devastating experience of her son dying to illustrate why healthcare staff with cold sores must stay away from new babies. Sarah highlights the lack of awareness of the dangers and calls for a widespread review of policy in order to prevent future deaths.

4 Mums with babies in NICU: postnatal maternal mental health support

In this blog, Abbie highlights the importance of building a trauma-informed, clinical network around women whose babies have spent time in NICU. Drawing on her own experience and insights, she offers suggestions for how midwives, GPs and health visitors can support their mental health postnatally. 

5 Patient Safety Bundles (Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health)

Patient Safety Bundles are a structured way of improving the processes of care and patient outcomes. Patient safety bundles are collections of evidence-informed best practices, developed by multidisciplinary experts, which address clinically specific conditions in pregnant and postpartum people. The goal of patient safety bundles is to improve the way care is provided to improve outcomes. A bundle includes actionable steps that can be adapted to a variety of facilities and resource levels.

6 Decolonising midwifery education Part 1: How colour aware are you when assessing women with darker skin tones in midwifery practice?

In midwifery practice, skin assessment is an important element of any physical examination of women. This article published in The Practising Midwife, highlights ways in which midwives can develop confidence in skin assessment when caring for women with dark skin tones.

7 The role of UK ambulance services in supporting safe maternity and newborn care

Ann Moses, Patient safety response lead, and Stephanie Heys, Consultant midwife, at Northwest Ambulance Service explain how ambulance services play a pivotal role in ensuring the safety of mothers and their newborns during urgent and emergency situations. These services act as the frontline responders, providing immediate care and facilitating timely transport to appropriate healthcare facilities.

8 Working with bereaved parents for safer and more equitable care

In this blog, Julia Clark and Mehali Patel from the Sands Saving Babies’ Lives research team, draw on their recent Listening Project to illustrate the value of working with bereaved parents. Julia and Mehali argue that hearing and amplifying these unique insights is vital to developing safer, more equitable neonatal and maternity care.

9 Maternity disadvantage assessment tool: Assessing wellbeing and social complexity in the perinatal period

The maternity disadvantage assessment tool (MatDAT) is a standardised tool for assessing social complexity during maternity care based on women and birthing people’s broad social needs. Developed by the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), it provides a guide for midwives to identify the woman’s care level (Level 1–4) and develop a personalised care and support plan (PCSP), as well as facilitating smooth communication with the multidisciplinary team. The tool and the MatDAT Planning Guide also support maternity services to plan and allocate resources to level of care pathways.

10 Breaking the taboo: the impact of severe maternal birth injuries on the mother-baby bond

This report, produced by the MASIC Foundation, explores the impact of severe maternal perineal trauma on the physical and mental health of the women who sustained the injuries and on their relationship with their child. The report calls for several actions to improve care, including the national rollout of the RCOG OASI Care Bundle.

11 Taking action on the Ockenden report (University Hospital Southampton)

This infographic has been produced by Katherine Barrio, Better Births Project Midwife from the University of Southampton NHS Foundation Trust. It sets out their plans against each of the seven immediate and essential actions outlined by the Ockenden Report.

12 Information on group B Strep translated from English into 14 other languages

This information leaflet, produced by the charity Group B Strep in partnership with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG), is aimed particularly at pregnant people and new parents with information about group B Strep. It has been translated from English into 14 other languages.

13 Postnatal Risk Assessment Matrix (PRAM)

This resource was developed by Dr Cindy Shawley, Quality Improvement Lead for Maternity at Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Included in the pack are a ‘holding your baby safely’ poster and guidance for the keeping mums and babies together in the first hour of care to support normal adaption to life.

14 Translation and interpreting services in maternity and neonatal care (Sands and Tommy's Policy Unit)

Recent reports have highlighted issues with non-English speaking women and birthing people being able to access equitable maternity care, with inconsistent use of interpreters and translation services, and cases where this has contributed to poor outcomes and avoidable harm. Sands & Tommy’s Joint Policy Unit have produced a briefing paper on translation and interpreting services in maternity and neonatal care.

15 PROMPT Wales

PROMPT Wales is a maternity safety and learning programme funded by the Welsh Risk Pool and supported by the PROMPT Maternity Foundation. This all Wales programme aims to meet the training needs of multi-professional teams in NHS Wales maternity services. PROMPT Wales is delivered in all 7 Health Boards in Wales by local faculty teams. Programmes include the clinical management of obstetric emergencies with a focus on teamworking, communication and the impact of human factors. Training is situated in the clinical setting and ‘teams who work together, train together.’ The overall aim of PROMPT Wales is to improve outcomes in maternity care and reduce the litigation costs associated with avoidable harm.

16 RCOG video series: Tackling inequalities and disadvantage during pregnancy and birth

This video series from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) discusses what actions are required to understand and work with vulnerable women and determine the best way to care for women who require complex intersecting services.

17 Obstetricians approach to proactive safety management

In this blog, Farrah Pradhan, Project Manager for Clinical Quality, Education and Projects at RCOG, describes her work with maternity professionals, namely obstetricians, and through undertaking an MSc in Patient safety. Farrah’s focus was on their 'work as done' to see if the concepts of Safety-II (capability mindfulness and resilience engineering) helped them to work more safely.

#Share4safety

Are you a healthcare professional looking to share your frontline insights to help improve patient safety? Have you developed a resource or tool locally that others could benefit from? Or perhaps you have an experience to share around maternity safety, as a pregnant woman or birthing person? 

Join the conversation in our community forum on the hub, or get in touch with us by emailing [email protected].

Join our global patient safety community

the hub is an award winning platform, bringing together people from around the world who are passionate about patient safety and reducing unsafe care. It's free and easy to join so why not sign up today and join a growing community helping to drive safer care.