Preconception and Antenatal Health Care

This is a report by Healthwatch Buckinghamshire. The project looks at antenatal and postnatal care in the area.

Comments were gathered in order to inform Buckinghamshire Public Health develop a programme focussed on improving women’s health before and during pregnancy. They heard feedback about the information, support and advice available to women at the time of their pregnancies.

A total of six focus groups, a two-person interview and two individual interviews were held with women during October and November 2023.

Feedback was gathered in settings across three areas in Buckinghamshire – Aylesbury, Chesham and High Wycombe. A total of 31 voices were gathered in total.

There are recommendations in this report.

Education and Awareness Campaigns:

• Educate and encourage women and their partners to adopt healthy behaviours before conception by raising awareness through campaigns focussed on improving women’s health before and during pregnancy.
• Produce preconception information booklets/leaflets with translations for frequently spoken languages in Buckinghamshire such as Urdu, Panjabi and Polish.
• Target campaigns in community settings such as libraries, community hubs, local retailers.
• Campaign strategies should focus on the most effective ways to communicate with younger adults (18 years – 25 years). This could include posting information on social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.

Local public and private partnerships:

• Work in partnership with places of worship across Buckinghamshire including faithbased community centres and social clubs.
• Improve local awareness of Be Healthy Bucks and other health and wellbeing services in the community.

Healthy Start Scheme:

• More signposting to the healthy start scheme among community partners. Information about this scheme is available on Buckinghamshire Council Family Information Service website.

Gaps in support services:

• Look at ways to bridge the gap in support services for younger mothers by working with Family Service Centres to provide drop-in sessions.
• Develop a programme to address the gaps in mental health care for mothers so that they receive more support before, during and after pregnancy.

Communication in maternity services:

Senior NHS staff should:

• Identify opportunities to improve communication during antenatal appointments by looking at ways to enhance cultural competence and quality of services. Culturally competent care is sensitive to people’s cultural identity or heritage.
• Continue to support NHS healthcare staff to gain more understanding of issues around cultural and health by using learning resources such as ‘The Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety elearning tool’ which has been developed by Health Education England in collaboration with The Royal College of Midwives.

There are follow up actions in this report. Local public health is to take on board the findings for their approach to services.