Maternity and newborn care
Consultation now closed
Members of the public were asked to have their say on the future of maternity and newborn services in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland during November 2009.
The aim was to find out attitudes towards women having their care in hospital or at community-based services. People were also asked how far they would be willing to go for specialist care and how they feel about where that specialist care should be available.
In total 814 questionnaires were completed and an independent report was compiled by the Health Policy Research Unit at De Montfort University. The feedback showed:
- Delivering safe services was considered to be the most important factor
- Access to services was a priority when birth complications arose
- People wanted midwife clinics, scans, childbirth facilities and postnatal care close to home (within five miles)
- However, they seemed more willing to travel to specialised baby care facilities and to access scans and examinations rather than midwife clinics and birth facilities
- A majority considered it important that home births should be possible where it was safe to do so - although only a minority stated that they would choose home births in the future. Two-thirds said they would opt for a main hospital maternity ward, with over a quarter opting for a midwife unit
- Of the services available, people gave most support for active birth methods. A majority supported the availability of a birthing pool
- Areas where services could be extended or improved were identified as being: midwife-led units; more postnatal support, such as for breastfeeding; greater support for first-time parents; and improved access to antenatal care
A number of possible options have now been developed for the future of maternity and newborn care in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. These will go to the trust boards of University Hospitals Leicester, NHS Leicestershire County and Rutland and NHS Leicester City during the summer.
If a public consultation is required for the options proposed for the future of maternity and neonatal care, this will be announced at the public board meetings.
View a summary of the report
View the full report
Read the news release of 1 April 2010 - 'Public's views on maternity and newborn care published'.
This work is part of the
Next Stage Review which locally has been called Excellence for All. More information on what people said about maternity and newborn care in the first stages of this review can be found in our publication:
'Excellence for all - taking it to the next stage.