Power to change: in your handsAnne FoxHead of Campaigns & Public Policy NCT

Speaking out; using parents’ experiences to create change

• We campaign in various ways so the experiences of parents are at the heart of services.

• Services should aim to give parents a good experience as well as using these experiences to review and improve their services, as an indicator of effectiveness.

Every year thousands of parents tell part of the NCT their story

• Helplines

• Branch events

• Antenatal classes

• Drop-ins

• Early days courses

• Over a cup of tea…

Collecting them together and communicating them in different ways – we can change services for parents for the better

We tell these stories on through…

• face to face contact

• meetings

• campaigns

• research

Gathering stories together, lets us know …

How do we gather stories and put them to use?

• NCT has a successful record of using stories in research based campaigns

• With proven results

Better Birth Environment Campaign

• Women told us about the environments in which they gave birth

• What helped

• What hindered

All over the UK the NCT community and those interested in improving environments used this tool… with impressive results

Dundee Community Midwifery Unit

Home from Home, Ulster Hospital, Belfast

St. Mary’s birth centre, London

Cardiff & Vale midwifery unit

Location, location, location Campaign

• Despite policy promises

• Parents told us repeatedly that choice of place of birth was not offered or available

• We investigated these stories

• We researched the availability of choice

Location, location, location Campaign

• We are calling for every woman and her partner to be able to choose where they have their baby

• The choice needs to exist

• It needs to be informed by evidence

• The pressure needs to come locally

We have gathered more stories

• To assess to what extent women’s needs for information, practical and emotional support were being met during the first month after birth

• To compare the findings with women-centred quality standards on postnatal care in policy

Early results

Preliminary analysis indicates women's needs are not being met:

•First time mothers •Those who have complex births

• Less than 50% of women said that they

received all the information they needed

about their own health.

• 23% said that they had received “a little” or

“did not get” the information they needed.

Early results – information

• Just over half felt they got all the physical

care they needed in the first 24hrs and 2-7

days

• On average approx 20% felt they got “a

little” or “did not get” the care needed

Early results – physical care

• Women were least satisfied with the

emotional support they received

• On average approx 30% felt they got “a

little” or “did not get” the emotional support

they needed

Early results – emotional support

We were moved to postnatal ward where we received very little support…I found the midwives often rude and very stressed. My medication for my blood pressure was 5 hours late. I had to ask 4 times over a period of 5 hours for clean sheets for my baby as he had been sick. This experience left me feeling low, guilty, angry and whole other range of emotions. I have been failed by the NHS to extent that my husband and I do not feel that we can consider having another child. (first time mother)

• Throughout the whole of the first month after birth those who experienced complications were less likely to feel that they had:

• all the information they needed about their own health

• all the physical care they needed

• all the emotional support they needed

…as soon as the baby was born I felt I was on my own. I spent the first night on the ward less than 2 hours after the birth of my son in floods of tears…every time I closed my eyes the nightmare of my birth experience came flooding back. Nobody came to check on me even though I know I was sobbing loudly and uncontrollably. Every single night of the 3 nights I spent in the hospital were the same. The first morning I stood up from the bed and bled all over the floor– I didn’t know what to do and again nobody came I was appalled by the language used in my notes – the reason for my forceps intervention – described wonderfully as “lack of maternal effort” a phrase that still haunts me. (First time mother- assisted delivery in hospital)

• Published later in the year

• Poster at RAIT stand in NCT Village

Stories are important

• We need to know what’s going on

• We need to know what parents think of the services and supports available

• We need you to collect these stories

Download your story sheet today

• www.nct.org.uk/active

• Tell us your story

• Collect stories from the parents you meet in your NCT work

• Send them to us

• active@nct.org.uk

• Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.

• Barack Obama