Birth Matters - Our Lady of Lourdes Consumer Group

For the first time in 50 years consumers are involved in policy changes in Irish maternity care.

The purpose of the Birth Matters group is for consumers and staff to work together towards developing more women friendly services that are respectful, personalised and rewarding for both consumers and staff.  The role of the consumer representatives in particular, is to promote the needs of local people using the maternity services.

The Vision:  That the maternity unit of Our Lady of Lourdes becomes known as a recognized, respected maternity care provider.  A centre of excellence for maternity care where mothers can be assured of high standards of dignified evidence based care before during and after her baby’s birth. Being a centre of excellence would result in the maternity unit attracting and retaining the best midwives and consultants in the country.  An increased strong community support network of PHNs, GPs and other voluntary agencies is critical to the ongoing work of the group.

Context: 

• We live in a changing society - one that places very little value on motherhood. Mums are under pressure to get back to ‘normal’ as soon as possible.  There are unique pressures on parents in Ireland, long commutes to work, lack of community/family support and generational differences. Postnatal care is considered inadequate. New mothers need to be ‘mothered’ so that they can become confident, capable parents. Providing additional postnatal support services was identified by the group as a priority for new mothers.)  Part of the  Maternity Services Taskforce 10 point plan was a collaboration between staff and consumers which would bring about learning for both and a much wider perspective on the challenges faced by new mothers. Ireland is beginning to follow other countries that have a strong consumer driven focus on maternity care such as the UK, Australia and NZ.  This is just the beginning of a promising partnership between consumers and their caregivers.   

• Birth matters….……women never forget their experiences of childbirth. Penny Simkin renowned normal birth advocate demonstrated this in a small study that took place over 20 years which involved interviewing mothers about their experiences of giving birth.  The first interview was within a short time of their labours and then 20 years later they were interviewed again about their experiences. It was evident that women never forget their birth experiences and the way a woman feels after birth has implications on how she sees herself, how she relates to her baby, her partner and ultimately the community she lives in.

• The Lourdes Enquiry provided the impetus for change.  Like the mythical phoenix rose from the ashes we are seeing a ‘rebirth’ of sorts in the Lourdes with the formation of this consumer group.  It represents a new era - a rebirth of normal birth, a rebirth of mother focused, dignified care for mothers, fathers and their babies.

Meetings are held quarterly and all are welcome !

Please contact me to receive our 2007 Annual Report or with any questions.

Tracy Donegan

Chair - Birth Matters Consumer Group

Key Accomplishments for 2007 – Turning the Vision into Reality

While the sub groups have only been in place only a year, considerable achievements have been made. The key developments to date include:

• All subgroups have outlined their terms of reference and are actively working towards achieving their objectives.

• The group has elected a consumer chairperson Tracy Donegan and Jene Kelly as vice chair thus ensuring more transparent processes.

• Consumers are actively involved in developing practice guidelines for North East maternity services including reviewing the research evidence. This is a historic development for the provision of maternity care in Ireland and welcomed by consumers and caregivers. The process has extended the debate on normal birth and challenges the lack of good evidence to support the increasing levels of clinical interventions.   From December 2005 until September 2007, 16 evidence-based maternity care guidelines using a systematic rigorous guideline development process and four information leaflets for women were developed. 5 of which had direct input from consumers – Dawn Staudt, Tracy Donegan and Victor Oniwona.   The Protocol and Information subgroup worked together to develop information leaflets to assist implementation. A key accomplishment for this group was the development and agreement of the Post Dates Guidelines and the creation of an information leaflet to educate mothers on the new policy on induction.  The contract for Lorraine Carroll who successfully spearheaded the Clinical Guidelines Group’s contract expired at the end of September and the group is actively working with hospital management to extend the contract.  Ms Carroll’s contribution to the group is essential for the continuing research, implementation and audit of clinical based guidelines. (See Appendix C)

• 5 consumers undertook the UNICEF 3 day training programme in breastfeeding in 2007. One mother has set up a local BF support group in collaboration with her local PHN.(Slane) Others are offering additional home support visits while some are available at clinics in OLLH  and Dundalk for information and support.

• Professionally supported mother baby and toddler group set up in Drogheda

• Multicultural issues are being addressed (eg menu choices, interpreters, antenatal classes for non-English speaking mothers etc)

• Information packs for expectant parents currently being reviewed with a view to creating a standard publication distributed to mothers at their booking visit that will include all relevant antenatal information for mothers during their pregnancies.  The Cavan and Drogheda consumer groups are collaborating on this project.  Rosemary O’Callaghan has contacted the National group of Health Promotion Managers requesting that this issue be considered on a National basis due to the resource commitment needed for such an ambitious project.

• Birth Matters consumers are members of the Teamwork group set up to plan for future women’s services in the North East region

• Hospital caterers are actively addressing multicultural food issues.

• The homebirth group is liaising with Waterford staff and key members of the Domiciliary Births Implementation Group to develop a DOMINO scheme in OLOL.  Rosemary McBride – Student Midwife is leading this initiative.