What has the AIMS Campaigns Team been up to this quarter?

AIMS Journal, 2025, Vol 37, No 2

By The AIMS Campaigns Team

Published written outputs:

• 1st March: AIMS letter to Professor Mary Renfrew on her report on maternity services in Northern Ireland.

Conferences and group meetings attended:

• Various Plan-A project meetings through February and March

• 5th February: Charities’ and Service Users’ Maternity Continuity of Carer Network (AIMS facilitated)

• 6th February: Participated in meeting between Maternity Continuity Network and NHS-England

• 11th February: London Maternity & Midwifery Festival

• 13th February and April 10th: NHS England Maternity and Neonatal Stakeholder Council

• 17th February: RCM Research prioritisation project steering group meeting

• 24th February: Crochet workshop for AIMS piece on human rights in childbirth for Threads of Protest Exhibition

• 26th February: MuM-PreDiCT Research Project Virtual Dissemination Event, focussing on ways to improve care for pregnant women with two or more long-term health conditions (MLTCs). MuM-PreDiCT Virtual Dissemination Event https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mum-predict-dissemination-event-tickets-1059503697079?aff=oddtdtcreator (Nadia and Jo)

• 21st March: Facilitated session for third year student midwives at the University of York on ‘Leading and Managing change’ with a focus on physiology-informed practice

• 21st-23rd March: Doula UK Conference

• 24th March: Discussion of ‘Justice for Obstetric Violence’ draft survey

• 25th March: Inaugural Regional Maternity & Neonatal Conference: Committed to Safety: Shaping the Future for Maternity & Neonatal Care in Belfast

• 8th April: All Ireland Maternity & Midwifery Festival 2025 in Dublin

• 23rd April: Quality Maternal and Newborn Care film screening and discussion. Documentary set in Mexico, by Janet Jarman, Birth Wars

• 25/26th April: Annual meeting of the European Network for Childbirth Associations (ENCA), Athens

• 27th April: AIMS keynote talk at the Rebirth Festival, Plato’s Academy Park, Athens

• 28th April: Advisory group on research study titled ‘Pilot of Maternity & Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate (MNISA) role: A rapid mixed methods evaluation’ (information about the evaluation and about the MNISA role can be read here)

• 29th April: MINI (Maternity Inequalities Northern Ireland) Research Group Stakeholders Event ‘Care and support for women and babies after pregnancy’ in Belfast, as part of NIHR Challenge Maternity Disparities Consortium

Who we have been liaising with:

• NCT

• LGBT Mummies

• Best Beginnings

• CAHN

• Make Birth Better

• Birth Companions

What we have been reading/listening to/watching:

• New Welsh policy statement on maternity and neonatal services

Thanks to all the AIMS Campaigns Volunteers who have made this work possible. We are

very keen to expand our campaigns team work, so please do get in touch with campaigns@aims.org.uk if you’d like to help!