Antenatal Services (Care During Pregnancy) Project Report
In 2018 The Royal Oldham Hospital invited Healthwatch Oldham to undertake a review of the experiences of pregnant women and their partners/birth partners attending their Antenatal Clinics. The findings along with a series of Healthwatch recommendations was published in January 2019.
As standard practice, we always give the service taking part in the review an opportunity to comment on the report’s findings and recommendations and include this feedback in the final report. Unfortunately reporting on the findings of the review and progress against the recommendations has been significantly delayed due to changes in staff on the Maternity Ward at the end of 2018.
We have continued to work closely with the teams at the Royal Oldham Hospital and as part of a follow up process to the review we have received an update on all the improvements and service changes undertaken by the Maternity Ward in response to each of the Healthwatch recommendations. The Antenatal report has been updated to include this update.
Summary
Healthwatch Oldham gathered the views and experiences of pregnant women and their partners who attended the Royal Oldham Hospital (ROH) Antenatal Clinic as part of their pregnancy care.
The review was carried out through semi-structured, face to face interviews and was open to pregnant women attending 1 of 5 randomly selected Antenatal Clinics held in May and June 2018. We then invited the father/partners of the women who took part in the interviews to complete their own survey.
In total Healthwatch Oldham interviewed 66 pregnant women and 25 partners/birth partners, the majority resident in Oldham. All the responses were analysed in an anonymous and confidential way and are designed to give a snap shot of people’s experiences. The review sample is not designed to represent the Oldham population.
Key Findings
- There is much to be celebrated about the antenatal care provided both within the hospital setting at the Royal Oldham Hospital and within the community across Oldham
- Overall most of the women who took part in the survey were very happy with the level of antenatal care they received with 92% feeling that their concerns were listened to and that they were involved in choices and decisions about their care
- There were a small number (7%) of women who felt their choices were not listened to and in one example this resulted in the woman electing to move to a different hospital.
- The midwives at both the ROH and in the community received particular praise for their friendly approach
- The doctors were seen as friendly and caring
- Most of the fathers/partners who took part in the survey were also happy with the level of care offered to the expectant mothers.
