Maternity project

The aim of this project was to establish people’s views and their experiences of maternity services in Cheshire East. The focus was to capture experiences from expectant and new mothers with the aim to inform and improve local maternity services based on their feedback. In order to inform their research, we conducted a survey to find out more about what people thought about the maternity services they have experienced in Cheshire East. The design of the survey was based on input from members of the Healthwatch Cheshire East team and was produced to identify key areas for enquiry. Healthwatch Cheshire East received 108 responses from our sample of new and expectant mothers.

To provide a consistent snapshot of Maternity services across Cheshire East, the survey was used in various locations across the local authority area from November 2017 to February 2018. The venues included attending church groups, mother and toddler groups, carers groups, libraries and GP surgeries to meet people. There are two hospitals trusts within Cheshire East that cover the populations surrounding Crewe to the south and Macclesfield to the north.

Healthwatch Cheshire East’s sample study into people’s experiences of maternity services in Cheshire East found that on the whole most of the people we spoke to had a good experience. In total, almost a third of respondents raised no issues with the service they received and we heard lots of positive feedback from people, suggesting they were happy with the maternity services they used. There were though some areas where people thought things could be improved.