The James Paget University Hospital’s maternity team has launched a new initiative aimed at further improving its maternity service for local mothers and babies.
Continuity of Carer started this week – and is being implemented both locally and across the country in response to the 2016 ‘Better Births’ report, which was published with recommendations to ensure maternity services in England become safer and more personalised.
The report was produced on the findings from the National Maternity Review which recommended a model of care which would improve outcomes for mothers and their babies, through building effective relationships between women and their midwives.
Introducing this model of care was also the single biggest ask of women from the National Maternity Review and from women in our local area when we have asked how we can improve our service.
The Continuity of Care (CofC) model enables a pregnant woman to build a relationship with her midwife (and a small team of midwives) and have that support through her whole maternity journey – and in trials involving thousands of women, it was found that women were more likely to feel satisfied with their experience of maternity care and have a normal birth.
The first wave of three Continuity of Care teams were launched on Monday (1 February 2021). The three teams are Rose Quartz Team, Opal Team, and Sapphire Team, which will provide continuity of care from three new hubs based at Kirkley Mill, Lowestoft; the Consortium, Halesworth; and Nelson Medical Practice, Great Yarmouth.
The national target states that 35% of women should be booked onto a Continuity pathway by 31 March this year. The launch of our first wave will see 36% of women being booked onto a Continuity pathway at JPUH.
We are working collaboratively across our Local Maternity & Neonatal System (LMNS) to offer continuity to all women in due course, where it is clinically appropriate to do so, and plan to implement full continuity of carer by the end of the year.
Here is a copy of the antenatal schedule of appointments in pregnancy. If you have any concerns between your arranged appointments, please do not hesitate to contact the Maternity Department using the telephone numbers below.
