Experiences of maternity services
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Healthwatch Devon held a focus group and conducted structured interviews to obtain feedback on maternity services. Two separate sets of interview questions were developed for women and men. The team collected the views of 29 people.
The questions focused on 6 key areas: seeing the GP, seeing the midwife, before the birth, during the birth, after the birth, and further comments. The responses indicate that respondents had mixed experiences with maternity services. Overall, the respondents reported having a positive experience with their GP and midwife during their pregnancy. The main issue that was common across all key areas was the lack of access to interpreter services. Many respondents reported that they were not offered an interpreter and, in some cases, some were refused access to an interpreter. One woman reported that she asked for an interpreter several times, but was told that hospital staff could translate for her using a computer.
The report did not make any recommendations. No responses from service providers were included.