What has the AIMS Campaigns Team been up to?

AIMS Journal, 2021, Vol 34, No 1

Other quarterly updates

By the AIMS Campaigns Team

Covid-19:

• AIMS continues to work with the But Not Maternity Alliance to monitor where restrictions on partners/supporters attending the maternity services remain or have been reimposed, to promote awareness of the guidelines for lifting these restrictions, and to call on Trusts to review whether maintaining restrictions is a proportionate response to the current Covid risks. We also attended a meeting to support closer collaboration with the Royal College of Midwives and NHS England on concerns about maternity service restrictions.
• We continue to update the webpage Coronavirus and your maternity care with updates to the guidance and new research information as this is published.

Written outputs:

• Continuity of Carer Implementation Programme campaign update
• Review of the MBRRACE and NMPA reports on racial inequalities in maternity outcomes
• Review of the new NICE guideline on Inducing Labour
• Position Paper on Racial Inequalities in Maternity Services will be published soon!

Conferences and meetings

• AIMS volunteers participated in local March With Midwives vigils, including in Manchester and Colchester
• We attended the European Network of Childbirth Associations (ENCA) Conference, 20th November 2021, where we presented the UK country report and a separate presentation on the work of AIMS and the But Not Maternity Alliance during the pandemic
• We attended the one-day International Normal Labour and Birth Research Conference 2021 (online)
• We attended regular meetings of:
  • NHS England’s Maternity Transformation Programme’s Stakeholder Council
  • The Royal College of Midwives re:Birth Project Oversight Group
• We attended online sessions organised by the Midwifery and Maternity Festival team, including the weekly Midwifery Hour and an informative briefing on Vaccines in Pregnancy
• We had a meeting with NICE staff to discuss the principles that underpin their work and how these are embedded in practice
• We attended Shared decision making: a reality for everyone?: a webinar hosted by the Patients Association
• We attended a Care Opinion research chat: Using online patient feedback in research: a case study
• We attended Contextual Readiness for Transforming Maternity Care: a webinar organised by University of East Anglia (UEA) Health and Social Care Partners
• We participated in a Festival of Social Science event Sharing childbirth experiences: choices, challenges and conversation. This event, exploring some of the current issues facing women and the maternity services, was run by AIMS Volunteer Georgia Clancy, with participation from two other AIMS Volunteers, Anna Madeley and Nadia Higson. {link to Journal article}
• We attended a JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation) briefing on COVID-19 vaccination and pregnancy
• We attended an NMPA (National Maternity and Perinatal Audit) webinar Inequalities in maternity care
• We are participating with other stakeholders in a new series of informal meetings to consider issues surrounding the implementation of Continuity of Carer in England from a public/patient perspective.
• We attended and presented at the Doula UK Annual conference, January 21-23

What we have been reading about:

• The NMC’s (Nursing and Midwifery Council) congratulations of Scotland’s new Chief Midwifery Officer, Justine Craig
• The new NICE guideline on Pelvic Floor Dysfunction and comments from stakeholders.
• The recent findings from You & Your Baby 2020, the latest National Maternity Survey (NMS) carried out by the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit (NPEU). The study looks at maternity care satisfaction during the Covid-19 pandemic. The full report can be found here: www.npeu.ox.ac.uk/maternity-surveys.
• Experiences of maternity services in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire during the Covid-19 pandemic, in a report by Healthwatch Nottingham and Nottinghamshire and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Maternity Voices Partnership, December 2021
• ASPIRE Covid-19 Collaborative Group ‘Companionship for women/birthing people using antenatal and intrapartum care in England during COVID-19’ December 2021 BMJ Open 12:1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051965

What we have been watching:

• A short film on your rights to safe and appropriate maternity care: Speak Up, Speak Out
• A short video to raise awareness of obstetric violence: twitter.com/RodantevdWaal/status/1456593650402697224?s=20
• Adjournment debate on midwifery staffing in parliament: Debate: Midwives in the NHS - 17th Jan 2022

Thanks to all the AIMS campaigns volunteers who have made this work possible. We are keen to expand our campaigns team work, so please do get in touch with campaigns@aims.org.uk if you’d like to help!

See all Campaign Team updates