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Midwives aim to take even greater care of each precious new life Having a baby is an anxious time for any mother, but new measures at the Trust are improving safety and the quality of care. As she watches baby Luca sleeping soundly, new mum Danielle Newton has nothing but praise for the maternity unit at St James’s. “I’ve been very impressed with the service,” she says. “The staff and doctors were really reassuring.” Danielle is one of more than 800 women who give birth in the Trust’s maternity units every month. Thousands more are seen in the antenatal clinics and the community. Making sure every mother has a safe, straightforward birth is a priority. Advances in care and technology have made giving birth safer than ever before, but for some mothers events do not go as planned. Of the 9,800 births in the Trust over the course of a year, around 1,500 involve some kind of escalation. It’s a high number, but learning and actions from these incidents reduces the risk of more serious outcomes and keeps the maternity team fully connected to their service.
Focus on learning Sharing learning on how the maternity service could be improved has always been a focus for the units, as Julie Scarfe, Head of Midwifery explains: “Risk is owned by all members of the team.
Quality care: Midwife, Sam Moxon, with new mum Danielle Newton and her baby Luca.
Communicating honestly about the issues we face and how we can work together to resolve them is the key to improving safety and the experience for mothers.” Over the last few months the team has looked for new ways to ensure that all staff, including consultants, midwives, support workers and the wider team are informed of incidents and understand how they could prevent them from occurring in the future. One of their ideas has been to introduce weekly bulletin boards in every area of the
maternity units. Called Connect, which stands for ‘Communicating New News to Each Care Team’, the boards are designed to provide staff with essential information on incidents and issues in the units in a way that is quick and easy to digest.
Open communication The boards take their material from the ongoing work to manage risk within the units. Every week, Julie and her team meet to review any incidents that have happened and discuss any concerns from the previous week. Feedback from incidents and complaints are shared in a monthly report and themes and trends on Public Health issues like breastfeeding and smoking are also monitored every month. Complaints are shared openly on the Connect boards, as are positive stories about the staff and the service they provide. Such open communication is already proving a success with staff in the Trust’s maternity units, and the community midwifery teams across Leeds who receive the Connect board updates in a weekly email. “It’s been very well received,” says Julie. “It’s very visual and easy to understand, so it has maximum impact.
Sharing learning: Midwives Maxine Campbell and Lucy McKenzie
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“We’re able to spot emerging themes and use our learning on incidents to support safe, effective and personalised maternity care.”