Tommy's Birmingham centre to help pave the way towards better maternity care
The Government has established The Maternity Transformation Programme which is working to implement the recommendations of the Better Lives Report – the aim is to improve antenatal services by giving parents more choice about where they give birth and importantly making pregnancy and birth safer for everyone. An important part of making changes in the NHS is to test them in a few areas, learn about how it works in practice, before rolling out to all of the NHS.
Seven areas have been selected to test how better care might be delivered in pregnancy and these are:
Birmingham and Solihull
Cheshire and Merseyside
Dorset
North Central London
North West London
Somerset
Surrey Heartlands
We’re delighted that one of the test areas is in Birmingham where Tommy’s newest centre focusing on early miscarriage is based.
So what’s going to be different?
- Using small teams of midwives to offer greater continuity of care to women – it is hoped that your midwife getting to know you better will improve the care you receive and help identify any potential problems much sooner.
- Creating single points of access to a wider range of maternity services – this will give your midwife easier access to a wide range of experts who can help you in your pregnancy.
- Making better use of electronic records to provide more joined up care – this will help the health professionals caring for you to understand more about your total health care needs not just your pregnancy health needs.
- Improving postnatal care – this should give parents greater support as they adjust to parenting a baby.
- Providing better personalised care planning – this should give parents greater choice about where they give birth whether that’s in an obstetric unit, a midwifery led unit or at home.
The changes are designed to help reduce stillbirth and neonatal death and there is evidence from other countries that continuity of care (seeing the same midwife) has reduced pre-term birth so we’ll keep you updated about progress with this exciting initiative.
Read more our miscarriage centre
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Miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy may trigger long-term post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression
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Read more pregnancy in the news
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Abdominal stitch is more effective than vaginal stitch for recurrent preterm births
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How to stop pregnancy ads following you after a loss
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Miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy may trigger long-term post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression
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Pregnancy after loss, during Covid-19.
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Tommy’s scientists continue vital pregnancy research work
Tommy’s news
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Abdominal stitch is more effective than vaginal stitch for recurrent preterm births
A clinical trial has shown that an abdominal stitch can save babies’ lives by reducing preterm birth for high-risk women who have had a previous failed vaginal stitch. The trial was led and co-authored by Professor Andrew Shennan, Clinical Director of Tommy’s Preterm Surveillance Clinic.
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What to do when Facebook doesn't identify when an expectant mother's pregnancy has ended in loss. -
Miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy may trigger long-term post-traumatic stress, anxiety and depression
The largest ever study into the psychological impact of miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy has shown that early-stage pregnancy loss can have a serious impact on mental health. The research was led by Professor Tom Bourne at the Tommy’s National Centre for Miscarriage Research at Imperial College London. -
Pregnancy after loss, during Covid-19.
Tor Cook has struggled with fertility issues and sadly experienced 4 losses. She is currently pregnant in the midst of a global pandemic.