As part of Feedback February we’re sharing stories about staff members who have individually named as part of patient feedback on Care Opinion.
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The Continuity of Midwifery Carer service was introduced last year to help provide women in the north Belfast area with care from the same midwife or small team of midwives during their pregnancy, birth and early postnatal period with referral to specialist obstetric care as needed.
Last year, midwife Alice Moir helped introduce the service to women in north Belfast and supported a pregnant mum to deliver her baby in the comfort of her own home after she had opted into the service during her pregnancy. Alice explained how they rolled out the service last year. She said: “We went live for birth availability from April 1st, so we spent the month of March frontloading ladies who were already well established in their pregnancy and well established within the service.
“One of the ladies that we frontloaded was very keen for a home birth, and she was already known to the girls in north Belfast in the Grove, and she felt like it would be good to have a named midwife when she heard about the service that was coming.
“She’d had a previous baby before and I think she just wanted to have that calm, relaxed atmosphere at home. She was also still breastfeeding her toddler so it was really important for her and for her partner you know, as a family, to be as close to her daughter as possible and we just want to be able to facilitate that for her in her home.
“She just was brilliant, and it was it was such a calm, relaxed atmosphere of such a beautiful birth for them as a family, as well. It was so lovely.”
The home birth happened last summer, with the Alice following up at home with mum and baby as part of the Continuity of Midwifery Carer service before they were discharged. But it wasn’t the last time Alice would meet mum and baby as the service put together a celebration event at Christmas for all the women and babies who had come through the service.
“We had a like a Christmas event in the Mater in the atrium, and we invited back all the mummies who we had looked after and who were still maybe currently pregnant. The lady came and she come to me with her baby who I had delivered, which is so lovely to see them again, and she told me how much like how safe she felt how much of a wonderful experience it was.
“I think after having like the time to really process at herself then come back to me and say all that really meant so much, because it was it was amazing like it was fantastic.”
Care Opinion is a place where you can share your experience of health or care services, and help make them better for everyone. Care Opinion make it safe and simple to share your story online and see other people’s stories too. You can see how stories are leading to change. The direct feedback Alice received from the mum and the feedback left on Care Opinion had an impact on her but also the wider Continuity of Midwifery Carer team.
“To have all that positive feedback is so encouraging you know it just makes the team, it just really helps with morale and just helps just keep pushing us on. Just thinking ‘yeah we’re doing a good job here, this is what the women want’ you know and we’re we’re meeting that.
“Really means a lot then whenever women do go out of their way then to give us feedback.”