Maternity

Maternity care refers to the health services provided to pregnant women and pregnant people, babies, and families throughout the whole pregnancy, during labour and birth, and after birth for up to six weeks.  It can include monitoring the health and well-being of the mother or pregnant person and baby, health education, and assistance during labour and birth.

There are now around 9,500 babies born in Leeds every year. Making the most of every child’s potential is an important goal in Leeds – it’s a commitment made by the Leeds Health and Wellbeing Board. This means giving all children the ‘Best Possible Start in Life’, focusing on the earliest period in a child’s life, from before conception to age two. Babies who have the best possible start in life will be more likely to benefit from successful futures.

We know that having healthy parents / partner is the first step in giving any baby a healthy and ‘good’ start in life. We also know that the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has made it more difficult for some babies to have the best start in life. We want to balance these inequalities out as we reset and transform services. We have developed a maternity strategy which is an important part of reaching these goals. You can read more in the maternity strategy, 2021-2025, here: https://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/documents/s219587/Appendix%20-%20Draft%20Leeds%20Maternity%20Strategy.pdf

The Maternity Population Board brings together partners from across Leeds so that we can tailor better care and support for parents and families, design more joined-up and sustainable maternity services and make better use of public resources.

Over the last year, people planning health and care services in Leeds have worked with providers and the third sector to produce a set of outcomes for maternity care. These outcomes explain what we want to achieve to improve maternity care in Leeds providing equitable care for all and focussing on reducing health inequalities.

Outcomes for the maternity population board

The ambition of our maternity work in Leeds is that we will improve support for people using maternity services and their carers. The following ambitions outline what we want to achieve as a board:

• People receive personalised care maternity care safely.
• Families and babies are emotionally healthy.
• Families and babies are physically healthy.
• People feel prepared for parenthood.

These are our identified outcomes. By setting these clear goals, that are focused on how services impact the people they serve, the board is able to better track whether we’re really doing the right thing for the people using these services.

Insight review

We have worked with our partners to review the feedback (insight) we already have about people’s experience of maternity services. This will help us understand what we already know. You can read the report below:

Download the maternity insight report (Microsoft Word version)

Public involvement workshop

We held a public involvement workshop to check the findings of our insight report, review our identified outcomes (as above), and discuss our approach to public involvement on the board.

Notes

Download the notes from the maternity public involvement workshop (Microsoft word)

Slides

You can download the slides from the workshop below. Please note that these might not be fully accessible and we will aim to update these as soon as possible

Download the maternity public involvement workshop slides (PowerPoint)

People’s experience of maternity services

We always want to hear about your experiences of using services, it helps us know what’s working, and where things could be improved.

There are a number of ways you can tell us about your experiences:

‘How does it feel for me?’ project by Healthwatch Leeds

Get involved in sharing your experiences by video or written testimony. Your feedback will be shared with senior decision-makers in Leeds. See people’s experiences and find out more by visiting:  https://healthwatchleeds.co.uk/our-work/how-does-it-feel-for-me/

Share your story on Care Opinion

Care Opinion is an independent place where you can share your experience of health or care services, and help make them better for everyone. You can share your own story on Care Opinion. Say what was good and what could have been better.

Find out more and tell your story