Across Humber and North Yorkshire, the NHS and local partners are looking at ways to improve healthcare in our region.
Last year, as we started to consider how maternity and neonatal care could be delivered in the future, we launched a survey to hear from new and expectant mothers, women trying to conceive, surrogates, other birthing people, and their families about what matters to them when accessing maternity services.
Working collaboratively with Maternity Voice Partnerships (MVPs) across the region an engagement exercise called Your Birthing Choices was co-produced to help us better understand what environment people would prefer to give birth in, what influences their decisions on where to give birth, what their main concerns are and what could be put in place to alleviate those concerns.
An incredible 1,136 people participated and shared their views, through either an online survey or by attending a focus group. You can read what they had to say here: https://humbernorthyorkshire.engage-360.co.uk/surveys/10
- Overall, an Alongside Midwifery-Led Unit was participants’ preferred place to give birth, but not everyone’s first choice.
- At Home and at a Standalone Midwifery Led Unit were participants’ least preferred locations to give birth at due to concerns around safety should complications arise during labour.
- Not having neonatal care available would influence where many participants choose to give birth
- Being kept safe and well looked after was comparatively more important to maternity service-users than the public as a whole
We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who took the time to respond, your feedback has been invaluable.
You can read the Your Birthing Choices engagement report and the findings here:https://humbernorthyorkshire.engage-360.co.uk/surveys/10
You can keep up to date with the ongoing work of the Humber Acute Services Programme and future involvement opportunities by:
- Go online: Please click here to sign up for our newsletter
- Phone us: 03033 303544
- Write to us: Humber Acute Services Programme Team, FREEPOST RTTL-HSBE-BLHL, Health House, Grange Park Lane, Willerby, HU10 6DT.
- Email us: hasr@humberandnorthyorkshire.org.uk