Maternity report with initial covid-19 feedback addendum
Download (PDF 571.57 KB)Summary of report content
Healthwatch West Berkshire conducted a survey with 190 local women about their experiences of using maternity services. In this report there is additional findings about the use of these services during the COVID-19 pandemic collected via online meetings.
The report found that certain maternity services are not used by women in West Berkshire. This could be due to the focus on particular hospitals within the current system. 25% of women were dissatisfied with their maternity care, and 9% described the overall experience in their eyes as ‘traumatic’. This seems a high proportion who are unhappy, about which we should all be concerned and warrants further investigation.
During the pandemic, new mothers found it difficult to cope with the lack of family help due to lockdown. There was also a communication gap where they did not know what to do around important issues, including getting in touch with midwives, and organising baby weighing. The lack of health visitors operating normally, has impacted new mums.
Recommendations are listed in teh report to improve maternity services. The report received a number of responses from service providers.