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Clarity for maternity services will improve experience for women and keep staff safe during COVID-19

By Clarity for maternity services will improve experience for women and keep staff safe during COVID-19 Covid-19 covid-19 RCM Member RCM Midwives MSWs - Maternity Support Workers Pregnancy NHS Staff Maternity Services NHS NHS England

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has welcomed guidance from NHS England containing key actions for NHS trusts to enable pregnant women to have a partner, family or friends with them at all stages of their maternity care while ensuring everyone is as safe as possible during the ongoing pandemic.

The RCM has lobbied for clearer guidance for maternity services around visiting and support and say that this guidance strikes the correct balance of enabling women to have the support they need, while ensuring the safety of midwives and maternity staff is not compromised by the risk of infection from COVID-19.

Commenting, RCM’s Chief Executive Gill Walton said:

“Midwives really want women to have that all important support of a partner, friend or relative during their pregnancy journey particularly at scan appointments, during birth and labour. Unfortunately, it has been necessary over the past year to place some restrictions on this to help stop the spread of the virus.

“At the time maternity services did not make these decisions lightly, but now as we move towards the easing of restrictions, with more people vaccinated maternity services are beginning to slowly return to normal.”

The newly revised guidance from NHS England recommends that maternity services undertake a risk assessment in each part of their maternity service to identify precisely whether there is an elevated risk of COVID-19 transmission if partners are present. In addition, it recommends reconfiguring the space used to provide maternity care.

The guidance also recommends lateral flow testing for women and their partners to help alleviate infection risks, ahead of scan appointments, fetal medicine appointments, and at birth.

The RCM throughout the pandemic has supported maternity services and Heads of Midwifery to navigate the restrictions on partners, but unfortunately many older buildings with poorly designed space meant maternity services had little choice, but to restrict visits due to lack of space.

Just last week the RCM wrote to Health Minister Nadine Dorries calling upgrades to England’s NHS maternity service buildings to improve care for women and conditions for staff.

Gill added: “Something as simple as a well-designed building could have make a huge difference to the experiences of women and their families using maternity services during the pandemic. As the pandemic also showed, it was often the difference between a woman having a partner or friend with her at appointments and being alone. We have had a significant injection of money into England’s maternity services to increase staffing levels and support better training. We now need a similar commitment to improve the buildings these services are in. Many of the buildings used are old and in need of repair. They are simply not fit for purpose. We must learn the lessons of the past year and ensure maternity services have the right building and conditions in which to deliver the safest and best possible care for women, their families and for staff.”

ENDS

To contact the RCM media office call 020 7312 3456 or email [email protected]

Notes to Editors

 

The RCM is the only trade union and professional association dedicated to serving midwifery and the whole midwifery team. We provide workplace advice and support, professional and clinical guidance and information, and learning opportunities

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