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

AIMS Journal, 2022, Vol 34, No 2

By the AIMS Campaigns Team

Written outputs:

Campaigns Team responses to the Ockenden Report Ockenden 2022: if we want to see real change, then transparency and accountability is key, says AIMS and AIMS Campaigns Team comment on the Ockenden Report and next steps

We have sent a letter to Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, re. Continuity of Carer in light of Ockenden Report.

Article by Jo Dagustun in Midwifery Matters, March 2022 Campaigning for physiology-informed maternity services: where shall we start?

Publication of another AIMS Position Paper Racial Inequalities in Maternity Services

Conferences and meetings attended

• Jo Dagustun attended online sessions organised by the Midwifery and Maternity Festival team, including the weekly Maternity & Midwifery Hour. These sessions are recorded and available online.
• Jo Dagustun attended regular meetings of:
  • NHS England’s Maternity Transformation Programme Stakeholder Council
  • the Royal College of Midwives re:Birth Project Oversight Group
  • the MBRRACE-UK 3rd sector stakeholder group
  • the group convened by Mary Newburn on Continuity of Carer
• Nadia Higson attended the NMPA’s (National Maternity and Perinatal Audit) Clinical Reference Group meeting
• Jo Dagustun and Georgia Clancy attended a research seminar hosted by ARC-SL sharing recent findings about the benefits of Continuity of Carer models of midwifery care. This session was recorded and is available online.
• We met twice with representatives of the Royal College of Midwives, including as part of the Newburn Group, to discuss the implementation of Continuity of Carer.
• We met twice with representatives of NHS-E to discuss a range of maternity service improvement issues.
• On International Women’s Day on the 8th of March, Jo attended CAHN (Caribbean and African Health Network) and The Independent events.
• Monthly meetings with a working group on one Zine Project on consent and obstetric violence. Watch this space!

What else we have been reading:

• Government sets clear ambition to close gender health gap - (www.gov.uk)
• Findings from the Care Quality Commission's annual survey of maternity services across England www.cqc.org.uk/publications/surveys/maternity-survey-2021
• Maternity Transformation Programme regular bulletins - you can sign up here.
• The Chief Midwifery Officer’s email bulletins for NHS England. This one is from January/February and includes a link if you’d like to subscribe.
• News that a new Chief Nursing Officer for Northern Ireland has been appointed from March 2022 www.health-ni.gov.uk/news/maria-mcilgorm-appointed-chief-nursing-officer-northern-ireland
• The NMPA audit Obstetric interventions and pregnancy outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic in England: A nationwide cohort study - (plos.org)
• A paper exploring the use of sexed language in maternity care: Frontiers | Effective Communication About Pregnancy, Birth, Lactation, Breastfeeding and Newborn Care: The Importance of Sexed Language | Global Women's Health - (frontiersin.org). The purpose of this paper is “to increase understanding of why and how language regarding pregnancy, birth, lactation, breastfeeding, and newborn care is being desexed and to empower readers to consider the implications of these changes in their own contexts.”
• NICE quality standard on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder issued on 16 March 2022.
• NIHR Evidence - Care and decision-making in pregnancy
• Maternity and Midwifery - Humanising childbirth in the aftermath of the final Ockenden report

What we have been watching:

• Parallel Mothers - a new film touching on birth and early motherhood, from acclaimed director Pedro Almodóvar
• The BBC series This Is Going to Hurt, based on the book by Adam Kay
• BBC Two - Yorkshire Midwives on Call

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!