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Showing results for tags 'Midwife'.
Found 226 results
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Content ArticleReports showing that babies and mothers died or were harmed as a result of failures by, and sometimes heartless cruel treatment in, NHS maternity units are becoming worryingly common. Dr Bill Kirkup’s just-published 192-page exposé of an appalling catalogue of failings at East Kent NHS trust between 2009 and 2020 is the second in the last 12 months. As many as 45 babies and 23 mothers in East Kent died avoidably during that time because their care was substandard, his inquiry found. March brought Donna Ockenden’s grim findings about poor maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford trust. And Kirkup produced the first detailed exposition of what inadequate care of women and their offspring during childbirth looked like when in 2015 he laid bare “serious and shocking” lapses in care at Morecambe Bay trust. A fourth official inquiry, again being led by Ockenden, is under way into death, brain damage and other horrendous outcomes at the Nottingham trust. Families affected claim that, despite coroners’ findings, close scrutiny of the trust by regulators, media coverage of lapses in care and pressure for change, “babies, mothers and their families continue to be harmed”. No wonder Rob Behrens, the NHS Ombudsman, says: “The phrase ‘never again’ is starting to ring hollow.”
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Content ArticleThis article by Carrie Murphy looks at the practice of inserting a 'husband stich' or 'daddy stitch', where midwives or obstetricians make an unnecessary extra stitch when repairing episiotomies or tearing from birth. The belief is that it will make the vaginal opening tighter and therefore increase pleasure for the woman's sexual partner. The author highlights that this is a real practice that has been carried out on women for many years, and describes the ongoing impact it can have on women affected, many of whom don't realise they have been given too many stitches. This misogynistic and unethical practice can cause additional pain for women during sex. The women featured in this article state that they did not consent to the practice, being vulnerable after childbirth and in many cases unaware of what a 'husband stitch' was. Angela Sanford reports only finding out that she had a 'husband stitch' five years after birth at a cervical screening appointment where the nurse expressed concern. Murphy expresses her concern that the practice may still be carried out without women's consent, leaving them feeling violated and in pain.
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Content ArticleThis joint report by the APPG on Baby Loss and the APPG on Maternity is a culmination of over 100 submissions to an open call for evidence from staff, service users and organisations, on the maternity staffing crisis. It paints a picture of a service that is at breaking point and staff that are over-worked, burnt out and stressed.
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Content ArticleThis article tells the story of Baby E, who died two hours after delivery following issues with the management of her labour. The maternity unit was short-staffed on the night of Baby E's birth and there were delays in getting her mother to theatre for a caesarean section. Baby E's parents felt that the hospital withheld information from them, failing to inform them of internal investigations that had taken place following Baby E's death. At the inquest, the coroner concluded that errors had been made, including the fact that Baby E's low heart rate had been missed. She also criticised the decision-making process in the management of labour, but concluded that she was unable to say whether this had made a difference to whether or not Baby E lived.
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Content ArticleThis article in the Manchester Evening News details the experience of Amy, whose daughter Harper was stillborn following failings in Amy's care. After being induced, Amy was left on her own in a room at the Royal Oldham Hospital's maternity unit overnight, without any monitoring. She had raised concerns about her baby's reduced movements but was denied additional checks. When Amy was finally checked in the morning, Harper had no heartbeat. An internal investigation conducted by The Royal Oldham Hospital found that if Amy had received appropriate monitoring, CTG abnormalities would have been noticed. This would have led to an escalation in her care, earlier delivery and Harper is likely to have been born alive.
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Content ArticleThis framework from NHS England supports nurses, midwives and care staff in ensuring care remains at a high standard, as well as demonstrating the contribution to the Long Covid response. It aims to give the opportunity to embrace collective leadership in supporting people and communities served and showcase good practice as it emerges across England.
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Content ArticleThis realist evaluation aimed to explore and explain the ways in which a programme initiated by the Scottish Government, Keeping Childbirth Natural and Dynamic (KCND), worked or did not work in different maternity care contexts. KCND was a maternity care programme that aimed to support normal birth by implementing multiprofessional care pathways and making midwife-led care for healthy pregnant women the national norm.
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EventuntilHow can we better support nurses and midwives to flourish and thrive in their work? Join the King's Fund at this free online event to discuss the changes needed to empower nurses and midwives to shape and provide the compassionate, high-quality care that they aspire to in a sustainable way – through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The conversation will explore: workplace stressors, work conditions and ways of working – including workload, shift patterns and supervision – that have an impact on nurse and midwife wellbeing, and how these can be positively transformed organisational cultures and leadership styles – including those around diversity and inclusion, psychological safety and compassionate leadership at all levels – that need to be cultivated, and how progress can be achieved lessons and examples of good practice from across the health and care system, from both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Register
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Continuity of Carer (CoC) is a way of working within maternity services. It aims to provide a consistency in the care given to people before, during and after birth, limiting the number of clinicians involved in their journey. Evidence shows this approach improves safety, leads to better outcomes and is preferred by patients. In this blog, Samantha Phillis, Community Midwife, uses powerful examples to illustrate how the CoC model has helped her look after her patients.- Posted
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Content ArticleHaving consistent healthcare support during pregnancy, labour and after your baby’s born can make the world of difference. In this webpage, the National Childcare Trust (NCT) focuses on the following questions: What does Continuity of Care in maternity mean? What are the benefits? How can I make continuity of care more likely?
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Content ArticleThis review suggests that women who received midwife-led continuity models of care were less likely to experience intervention and more likely to be satisfied with their care with at least comparable adverse outcomes for women or their infants than women who received other models of care. Further research is needed to explore findings of fewer preterm births and fewer foetal deaths less than 24 weeks, and all foetal loss/neonatal death associated with midwife-led continuity models of care.
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Content ArticleThe purpose of this study, published in Acta Bio-Medica, was to explore the skills of the continuity care of patient operated by the midwife and to research the evidences that support such model. In particular, the aim was to verify whether there are efficacy trials that support the caseload midwifery care model. The questions that have guided this work are the following: Is the midwifery-led care model a safe caring model based on the evidences? Is the continuity of care provided by the midwife during pregnancy and childbirth as safe as the one provided by physicians or multi-professional teams? Is it therefore possible to propose its implementation in the obstetric units in Italy? The second aim was to explore evidence of customer satisfaction with the midwifery-led care model, and to verify also the satisfaction from the midwives who are part of a midwifery-led care model, in terms of job satisfaction and of a good balance between private and professional life.
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Content ArticleThis resource from the Royal College of Midwives, contains practical information and contains interactive exercises for midwives to use on their own or as part of a group, to support implementation conversations relating to continuity of carer.
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Content ArticleThis report, from the Royal College of Midwives, found that continuity of midwifery care contributes to improving quality and safety of maternity care. High quality evidence indicates that women who receive care in these models are more likely to have effective care, a better experience and improved clinical outcomes. There is some evidence of improved access to care by women who find services hard to reach and better co-ordination of care with specialist and obstetric services. Continuity of midwifery care can provide services for all women across all settings, whether women are classified as high or low risk and current evidence shows improved outcomes with no adverse effects in populations of mixed risk. In addition improved birth outcomes also result when women receiving continuity of midwifery care give birth in obstetric units.
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Content ArticleAs set out in Implementing Better Births: Continuity of Carer, continuity of carer means each woman: • Has consistency in the midwife or clinical team that provides hands on care for a woman and her baby throughout the three phases of her maternity journey: pregnancy, labour, and the postnatal period. • Has a named midwife who takes on responsibility for coordinating her care, and for ensuring all her needs and those of her baby are met, at the right time and in the right place, throughout the antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal periods. • Has “a midwife she knows at the birth”. • Is enabled to develop an ongoing relationship of trust with her midwife who cares for her over time.
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Content ArticleLearning about healthcare safety often focuses on understanding what has gone wrong, but it is just as important to examine what good looks for safety in maternity units. In this blog, Elisa Liberati describes how she worked with a team and several collaborators to develop a framework describing 7 key features of safety in maternity units. To ensure the study was as rigorous as possible, they combined several different methods and worked in a highly collaborative way across the system. Follow the link below to read the full blog, published by THIS.Institute.
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'Continuity of carer' in midwifery is when a woman has consistency in who they see during their pregnancy, labour and postnatal period. In this video, three midwives share their experiences of working in this way and talk about the benefits they've seen for women, babies and their own practice. They provide examples of how this model can improve the safety of services and offer advice for teams and individuals embarking on the continuity of carer journey. -
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In this joint open letter, the UK’s Chief Nursing Officers write about how they are supporting professionals during the pandemic. They encourage the profession to “speak up” if they feel unsafe at work amid the latest surge of COVID-19. The letter also includes information on: supporting to deliver care helping to strengthen the workforce capacity supporting the roll-out of vaccines support for health and wellbeing.- Posted
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Content ArticleNursing and midwifery are unarguably stressful endeavours requiring high levels of psychological capital and coping strategies. The impact of the work environment on patient safety outcomes suggests that high nurse/midwife stress may be associated with more adverse patient events. The purpose of this study, published in Nursing and Health Sciences, was to explore the psychological capital of clinical nurses and midwives and identify explanatory factors (including psychological capital, well‐being and health related behaviours) contributing to attitudes to patient safety.The findings suggest that nurse and midwife wellbeing is an important consideration when striving to improve patient safety.
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Caitlin Wilson is a Consultant Midwife, currently leading the development and implementation of the Midwifery Continuity of Carer (CoC) model in Worcestershire. In this interview, Caitlin tells us more about the benefits to both staff and families, and offers advice for anyone thinking about adopting this model of care. -
Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic has put the UK health and care workforce under unprecedented pressure. The workforce had been struggling to cope even before the pandemic took hold. Staff stress, absenteeism, turnover and intentions to quit had reached alarmingly high levels in 2019, with large numbers of nurse and midwife vacancies across the health and care system. The impact of the pandemic on the nursing and midwifery workforce has been unprecedented and will be felt for a long time to come. The crisis has also laid bare and exacerbated longstanding problems faced by nurses and midwives, including inequalities, inadequate working conditions and chronic excessive work pressures. The health and wellbeing of nurses and midwives are essential to the quality of care they can provide for people and communities, affecting their compassion, professionalism and effectiveness. This review, from the Kings Fund, investigated how to transform nurses’ and midwives’ workplaces so that they can thrive and flourish and are better able to provide the compassionate, high-quality care that they wish to offer. Nurse and midwives have three core work needs that must be met to ensure wellbeing and motivation at work, and to minimise workplace stress: autonomy, belonging and contribution. This report sets out eight key recommendations designed to meet these three core work needs. These recommendations focus on: authority, empowerment and influence; justice and fairness; work conditions and working schedules; teamworking; culture and leadership; workload; management and supervision; and learning, education and development.
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Content ArticleThis accredited programme, approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland, is the first of its kind to be offered in Ireland. It aims to support learners in the development of an appropriate level of knowledge, skill and understanding to enable them to appropriately recognise and respond to domestic abuse. This course will be of particular interest to those individuals whose work may bring them into contact with victims of domestic abuse. Follow the link below to find out more.
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Content ArticleThis webinar from the British Intrapartum Care Society, asks whether the medicalisation of childbirth gone too far. UK maternity services have become medicalised in an attempt to reduce pregnancy risks. But what are the risks that we use to justify these interventions and how well do we communicate these to women? How do we provide care for those who request alternative or non-recommended pathways of care? Speakers include Andrew Weeks, Jim Thornton, Maria Booker and Kemi Johnson and the webinar is Chaired by Natalie Carter from the British Intrapartum Care Society.
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Continuity of Carer in Worcestershire
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Midwifery Continuity of Carer
More and more women in Worcestershire are benefiting from having an individual named midwife throughout their maternity journey. In this short video, new Continuity of Carer (CoC) midwives from Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, and some local mums explain what it's like to be part of a CoC model. -
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COVID-19: managing an obstetric emergency (November 2020)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Maternity
The COVID-19 pandemic provides new challenges for the safety of people receiving and providing maternity care. This project, conducted in collaboration with the PROMPT Maternity Foundation and THIS.institute, involved a rapid-response consultation exercise to understand what good looks like for managing obstetric emergencies in women with suspected or confirmed COVID-19.
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