KGH expands midwife continuity of care service

A project to provide mothers-to-be with complete continuity of care and midwives they know has expanded to Kettering and Wellingborough.

Kettering General Hospital launched its first continuity of care team in July 2019 in Corby and by September last year covered the whole town with three teams, Eden, Ruby and Diamond.

Now the hospital has expanded the concept to Kettering and Wellingborough with the creation of Lotus team, giving some women in each town midwives they know throughout pregnancy, birth and after care.

The new team will only work with women who identify with BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) backgrounds, but over time the aim is to expand continuity of care to all mums in Northamptonshire.

Continuity of care lead midwife, Mary Grey, said: “Certain groups of women are less likely to have a positive outcome when it comes to pregnancy and birth.

“However, research shows that being part of a continuity team significantly improves both the experience of birth and helps prevent some of the complications.

“Therefore we wanted to start the continuity of care team concept in Kettering and Wellingborough by focusing on caring for women from BAME backgrounds.

“Once this is well-established we will be looking to create new teams and expand further in the Kettering and Wellingborough areas.”

There are seven midwives and one midwifery support worker in the new Lotus team, which began work on April 19.

Ms Grey added: “Before the Corby continuity of care pilot began mothers-to-be in the local area had an assigned community midwife, but when they come into hospital to give birth they often had their delivery with a hospital midwife.

“Continuity of care teams differ in that mums-to-be are assigned a named midwife who follows them throughout the pregnancy journey - including being present during labour and the birth of the baby.

“If for any reason the named midwife cannot attend the whole journey another member of the team would be present - who they will also have met.

“Feedback from the mums involved in Corby has been fantastic. They have said that continuity enables them to build a very strong relationship with their midwife and have had a very positive birth experience as a result.”

The teams follow the recommendations in the National Better Births programme, which involves giving women continuity of care throughout their pregnancy, birth and postnatal journey.

KGH’s head of midwifery, Kim Attley, said: “We are very excited to be expanding our successful continuity of care service into Kettering and Corby.

“This will help us to further personalise care for mothers-to-be and their families – in this case with a special focus on families from BAME backgrounds.

“Our long-term vision is to provide this services across the whole of Northamptonshire as further teams are developed to cover our local towns.”