Always a good start I arrive to find the Creche workers have arrived. Yay. Settle my boy in with Creche and go meet up with everyone a quick chat and then we begin. I am a little nervous and am playing catch up as I missed the last meeting (with the very good excuse of having given birth the day before). My biggest challenge is keeping us all to time.. with too much to discuss.
Key points from the meeting:
Discussion on the feedback from the survey conducted in 2009 of women who gave birth under Lewisham in summer 2009.
The timetable and plans for the opening of the new midwife led unit for Lewisham.
post natal support for women whilst in Hospital and on discharge, particularly mental health support.
How the committee can broaden its engagement with women using the service.
Tuesday 16 March 2010
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Spring 2010 Lewisham NCT Broodsheet Article
Getting involved – Broodsheet Newsletter Spring 2010
I had my daughter Lucy in July 2007, let’s just say the birth didn’t go anywhere near to what I had planned (a calm home birth ideally in the pool, ha!) there was meconium in my waters which meant going to hospital and a 24 hour stay after my daughter arrived. I had a very mixed experience during this labour between staff being helpful and supportive and some being rude, borderline aggressive and giving incorrect advice. Once I had recovered and settled into family life with my daughter I spoke to a few women who had also had a bad experience at Lewisham. Health visitors and midwifes I came into contact with also seemed to be aware that many women had negative things to say… A couple of people had mentioned there was a committee set up to look to improve Lewisham’s maternity services that was looking for ‘service users’ to be involved. Then at a NCT meeting volunteers where asked for to attend this meeting… I volunteered.
I have been attending the meetings of Lewisham’s Maternity Services Liaison Committee (MSLC) for a year or so now. The committee involves the primary care trust, Lewisham hospital midwifery, community midwifery and the local authority children’s services commissioning team among others. There are a lot of professionals round the table with the power to make change happen along with women who have experienced the services offered by Lewisham the committees aims are to:
•Ensure the information available to women is in a clear format and easily accessible
•To ensure feedback is collected and reviewed effectively and used to inform the development of services and changes in practice
•To inform the planning and purchasing of maternity and related services
•To support the work of Lewisham hospital and the councils to achieve UNICEF baby friendly status.
During the time I have been on the MSLC I have seen the feedback left by women using the maternity services improve dramatically, everyone involved in the MSLC is committed to improving and listening to those using the service… Look for your feedback cards and complete them. We do look at them and use the information given to review and change services.
I have just had my second baby a boy Alexander…at Lewisham hospital (I guess I am just not destined for a home birth) and I can say it was wholly positive experience. I am also the new chair of the MSLC. So if you want to know more about our work or get involved you can email me.
I had my daughter Lucy in July 2007, let’s just say the birth didn’t go anywhere near to what I had planned (a calm home birth ideally in the pool, ha!) there was meconium in my waters which meant going to hospital and a 24 hour stay after my daughter arrived. I had a very mixed experience during this labour between staff being helpful and supportive and some being rude, borderline aggressive and giving incorrect advice. Once I had recovered and settled into family life with my daughter I spoke to a few women who had also had a bad experience at Lewisham. Health visitors and midwifes I came into contact with also seemed to be aware that many women had negative things to say… A couple of people had mentioned there was a committee set up to look to improve Lewisham’s maternity services that was looking for ‘service users’ to be involved. Then at a NCT meeting volunteers where asked for to attend this meeting… I volunteered.
I have been attending the meetings of Lewisham’s Maternity Services Liaison Committee (MSLC) for a year or so now. The committee involves the primary care trust, Lewisham hospital midwifery, community midwifery and the local authority children’s services commissioning team among others. There are a lot of professionals round the table with the power to make change happen along with women who have experienced the services offered by Lewisham the committees aims are to:
•Ensure the information available to women is in a clear format and easily accessible
•To ensure feedback is collected and reviewed effectively and used to inform the development of services and changes in practice
•To inform the planning and purchasing of maternity and related services
•To support the work of Lewisham hospital and the councils to achieve UNICEF baby friendly status.
During the time I have been on the MSLC I have seen the feedback left by women using the maternity services improve dramatically, everyone involved in the MSLC is committed to improving and listening to those using the service… Look for your feedback cards and complete them. We do look at them and use the information given to review and change services.
I have just had my second baby a boy Alexander…at Lewisham hospital (I guess I am just not destined for a home birth) and I can say it was wholly positive experience. I am also the new chair of the MSLC. So if you want to know more about our work or get involved you can email me.
Aims and objectives
The committee involves the primary care trust, Lewisham hospital midwifery, community midwifery and the local authority children’s services commissioning team among others. There are a lot of professionals round the table with the power to make change happen along with women who have experienced the services offered by Lewisham the committees aims are to:
- Ensure the information available to women is in a clear format and easily accessible
- To ensure feedback is collected and reviewed effectively and used to inform the development of services and changes in practice
- To support the work of Lewisham hospital and the councils to achieve UNICEF baby friendly status.
- MSLC Aims and Objectives
Disclaimer
I guess I should point out that the views expressed in my posts are my own opinions and wont necessarily reflect the views of the whole MSLC.
Tuesday 2 March 2010
In the beginning: an introduction to this blog
Hello readers
I am Penny mum of two. Both babies born at Lewisham hospital in 2007 and 2009. As a result of my first birth experience I wanted to provide feedback on the maternity services so got in touch with Lewisham's Maternity Services Liaison Committee and have been a service user rep for around a year. Recently the chair stood down and as I have just embarked on a second round of maternity leave I put myself forward to take the reins.
The committee has a really large brief and lots it wants to achieve with limited people and time resources available. We are made up of service users (women who have had recent experience of Lewisham's Maternity services) and representatives of all the services involved in providing maternity services in the borough. One of the things we have been endeavouring to do is create a website for the MSLC but so far have not managed to get it together... So I had a brain wave... I could start a blog about my work involved as chair of the committee and slowly build up some knowledge and information about the committee's work ... Other committee members can add to the content and women in Lewisham can make contact with the committee via this blog feeding in their views. Hopefully it will be informative and the start of a discussion with women and possible men in Lewisham about maternity services with those providing those services... and maybe an amusing look at bureaucracy in action!
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