Airedale Hospital is hosting a community event next week for mum’s and partners, so they can share their experiences of their maternity care. It’s one of a series of events, supported by Airedale midwives, that take place every two months throughout the year, in different community locations across the area.
The next event is being held from 1pm-3pm on Monday 12 June at Highfield Community Centre, Drewry Road, Keighley, BD21 2QG.
The event will be led by a parent, with midwives there to listen to their experiences and will be supported by interpreters if needed.
Clare Cummings, Parent Education Midwife at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust says:
“It’s open to anyone in the Keighley area who’s had a baby at Airedale in the last two years and that could also be dads, partners and anyone who has had maternity care.
We want to encourage people to come to share any experience they’ve had with their community midwife care, whether it’s positive or negative, we want to hear it all. Our job is to listen, both to what problems people have had and their good experiences, so we can share that with the midwifery teams and keep improving and learning.“
As a result of feedback shared at past meetings parents have been actively involved in a number of important projects. These include designing an induction of labour information booklet for other mums-to-be and taking part in a visit of rooms on labour ward, to give feedback on what they thought of it and what improvements they’d like. They’ve also helped set up a Birth Choices clinic for women who have had a caesarean before and need to decide whether to have a vaginal or caesarean birth next time. They have been actively involved too in the maternity website, helping the Trust provide the right information, that mums want and need.
Clare adds:
“There have been lots of positive suggestions from other events and parents have been really enthusiastic about getting involved. It’s a great opportunity to be able to design our future maternity services together and making sure our mums and families are at the heart of it.”
For more information on the event email Wendy on wendy.toulmin@nhs.net or Clare on clare.cummings2@nhs.net.
To see the event details in other languages see the Airedale Midwives facebook page. If you need an interpreter for the meeting please email wendy.toulmin@nhs.net.
