MUMS from Worcestershire and Herefordshire have joined forced with maternity professionals to help improve and reshape maternity services across the two counties.

They were invited to take part in an event alongside midwives, neonatal nurses as well as paediatric and obstetric medical staff to put forward their views and ideas on how local services can develop to help every child have the best start in life.

Those who took part in the “Delivering Choice Safely” event, organised by Herefordshire and Worcestershire Local Maternity System and staged earlier this month, were asked to discuss and explore how improvements can be made in neonatal outreach, continuity of care for pregnant women, health and wellbeing issues throughout pregnancy and after, as well as prematurity.

Examples of outstanding practice locally were highlighted and these included the Kidderminster Hospital and Treatment Centre Maternity Hub, which opened in November 2016 and has been expanding its services since then.

The hub enables parents-to-be to access a range of maternity services in one place and often during one visit, making it much more convenient for both patients and staff.

Those attending the “Delivering Choice Safely” event looked at the opportunities to replicate initiatives like the Kidderminster Maternity Hub in other local areas.

This work is part of how local maternity services are trying to meet the aims of the national Better Births agenda. Better Births is an NHS report published in 2016 and setting out how maternity services in England should be run in future.

One of its main areas of focus is bringing different sections of the NHS together to work across organisational boundaries to provide a service that is kind, professional and safe in order to offer women choice and a better experience by personalising their care.

The report says by the end of 2020/21 Better Births locally should be improving choice and personalisation of maternity services so that:

• All pregnant women have a personalised care plan

• All Women are able to make choices about their maternity care during pregnancy, birth and postnatally.

• Most women receive continuity of the person caring for them during pregnancy, birth and postnatally.

• More women are able to give birth in midwifery settings (at home and in midwifery units)

It also wants safety improvements so that there are:

• reduced rates of stillbirth, neonatal death, maternal death and brain injury during birth by 20 per cent and services are on track to make 50 per cent reduction by 2030.

Christobel Hargraves, chair of the LMS, said: “The Local Maternity System Plan aims to turn the vision of the national Better Births report - improving care for mums, their babies and families - into a reality for the residents of Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

“This event was an opportunity for all partners involved in delivering maternity and newborn services to come together and think innovatively about how we work across boundaries. There are fantastic examples – including the antenatal hub at Kidderminster – of where a germ of an idea, combined with passion, can really make a huge difference to both the maternity services we can deliver and the experience for local mums.”

To get involved or register your interest in joining either the Herefordshire or Worcestershire Maternity Voices Partnership call 07710075062 or email worcestershire.mv@outlook.com or herefordshiremv@outlook.com