But Not Maternity/National Maternity Voices Webinar 22nd March 2021

AIMS and our partners in the But Not Maternity Alliance and National Maternity Voices organised a webinar for MVP/MSLC representatives. The purpose was to raise awareness of the national picture on maternity service restrictions, share best practice at local level and identify what needs to happen at the national level to enable the lifting of restrictions. You can read the report of the meeting here.

Although there have been significant improvements in the number of Trusts and Boards enabling partners to attend 12 and 20 week scans there is still work to do in ensuring that partners can attend all scans. In addition there is still huge variation in visiting on antenatal and postnatal wards.

The But Not Maternity Alliance has written a letter to NHS England to share the key messages:

  • The need for a unified policy across England
  • The need for more clarity around the 2m social distancing requirement being an aspiration but not a necessity
  • Home testing of partners must be supported
  • The need to publish evidence about the risk to staff and other service users of bringing back partners/visitors into different areas of maternity services, and how much testing and vaccination reduces these risks

We hope that this page is of interest, especially to our colleagues in the maternity services improvement community.

The AIMS Campaigns Team relies on Volunteers to carry out its work. If you would like to collaborate with us, are looking for further information about our work, or would like to join our team, please email campaigns@aims.org.uk.

You are welcome to quote from or link to this article in your own work to improve maternity services but please credit AIMS as the source. If you are using a quote please include the following words: “Quote from the AIMS article {URL}. AIMS is a charity that works towards better births for all by campaigning and information sharing, protecting human rights in childbirth and helping maternity service users to know their rights, whatever birth they want, and wherever they want it. See www.aims.org.uk

Please consider supporting us by becoming an AIMS member or making a donation. We are a small charity that accepts no commercial sponsorship, in order to preserve our reputation for providing impartial, evidence-based information.

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