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We’re thrilled to have teamed up with Anya – an innovative parenting and breastfeeding skills app – to offer expectant and new parents across Herefordshire and Worcestershire free 24/7 feeding and parenting support from their own phone.
Anya uses pioneering 3D and AI technology to support breastfeeding and the early parenthood journey. With one-to-one support from lactation experts and chat groups with other parents. Anya provides round the clock advice and support.
We’ve partnered with Anya to offer Premium access free of charge for pregnancy plus 3 months after birth.
NHS England is writing an updated delivery plan for how maternity and neonatal services are delivered. They are seeking views of staff, service users and stakeholders to help inform this new plan, and help set clear goals to make maternity and neonatal services more personalised and improve people’s experiences when using them. The new plan will also bring together aims for perinatal service delivery and improvement into one place.
The survey closes on the 27 November.
Pelvic floor workout programme launches for pregnant and postnatal women
Meet the Perinatal Pelvic Health Service Team
Covid-19 vaccination clinics for pregnant women prove successful
Meet Wye Valley’s new Associate Director of Midwifery
Money for digital transformation supports improvements in maternity care
Pregnant and postnatal women in Herefordshire and Worcestershire are being encouraged to use a new workout programme to help improve their pelvic floor health.
The ‘Squeeze, Lift, Hold’ campaign has been launched by the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS). The campaign includes a website with facts, tips and advice to help women recognise the signs of incontinence, as well as behaviours to follow to help strengthen their pelvic floor muscles.
More than one in three women experience unintentional (involuntary) loss of urine (urinary incontinence) in the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, while about one in three leak urine in the first three months after giving birth. But the team at LMNS want women to know it doesn’t have to be this way.
Rhiannon Eling, Maternity Voices Partnership representative said: “Incontinence during or after pregnancy isn’t normal and can have a massive impact on a woman’s quality of life. Talking about it isn’t normal either but it should be, which is why we’ve launched the ‘Squeeze, Lift, Hold’ campaign.
“By providing women with easy-to-follow tips and a workout programme of simple exercises taking less than six minutes each day, we hope they can improve their pelvic floor in just a few months, all from the comfort of their own home.”
The workout programme features simple, quick and effective exercises that can be fitted in around busy routines. With three stages, it is designed to improve bladder and bowel control, reduce the risk of pelvic organ prolapse, improve recovery from childbirth, preserve and/or increase sexual sensation, as well as maintain spine and pelvis support along with deep abdominal (tummy) and back muscles.
Daniela Long and Jen Westley, Specialist Pelvic Health Physiotherapists said: “Pelvic floor muscles work in two ways – slow and gently to keep things in place during your everyday life and quickly and strongly when you do a quick movement such as a cough, sneeze or laugh. That is why our workout exercises the pelvic floor in two ways – slow, gentle squeezes to work on the endurance of the muscles and then some quick, strong squeezes to stimulate both these pelvic floor functions.
“Once you grasp the technique, you can quickly start to progress and use the exercises in day-to-day activities.”
Amanda Argyle, Perinatal Pelvic Health Midwife added: “We hope women will find the workout programme simple, engaging and that they will quickly feel the benefits of adding them into their daily routines. Strengthening their pelvic floor muscles will enable them to enjoy this exciting new chapter in their lives with confidence.”
To find out more visit www.squeezelifthold.co.uk
COVID vaccination clinics now available in Kidderminster Maternity Hub
Continuous glucose monitoring now available through pregnancy for Type 1 diabetics
Work gets underway to develop pelvic health services for mums-to-be
Extra support for new parents on Hereford County Hospital’s maternity ward
From mental health service user to mental health peer support worker
Seven-day-a-week home support for babies born early
Direct access to maternity services now up and running in Herefordshire
Mums-to-be and their partners across Herefordshire and Worcestershire can now have guided tours of their local maternity services from the comfort of their own home, thanks to a series of new videos.
Informative virtual tours of the neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and postnatal wards at both Hereford County Hospital and Worcestershire Royal Hospital are now available.
It is hoped the videos will help to familiarise parents-to-be with both areas, provide information and advice around how to access the departments and what to expect if admitted, and reduce any anxieties that they may be feeling before their baby is born.
Hazel Brookes, quality improvement midwife at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS), said: “We hope that these new videos will provide information as well as reassurance to parents to be who might have questions and anxieties around what it might be like in hospital following the birth of their baby.
“By being able to ‘visit’ the neonatal and postnatal areas of their local hospitals in advance, we aim to reassure them that friendly staff are on hand to provide safe, quality care to them and their baby, and give an insight into what the ward or area they or their baby will be staying in is like, including practical information like how to locate it, what the daily routines are like and when partners can visit.”
The videos are available via the maternity and neonatal pages on both Trust’s websites at: www.worcsacute.nhs.uk or www.wyevalley.nhs.uk or on the LMNS website.
A new animation will ensure new mums in Herefordshire and Worcestershire receive consistent, expert advice and information following the birth of their baby.
The new Maternity Postnatal Information for New Parents animation, based on an award-winning resource developed by Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and service users, is compiled by experts to deliver the core aspects of discharge information for new parents.
It includes important information including what to expect after birth, how to register a baby’s birth, and advice on both baby and maternal health and wellbeing.
Hazel Brookes, quality improvement midwife at Herefordshire and Worcestershire Local Maternity and Neonatal System, said: “Those initial first days after the birth of your baby can be an anxious as well as exciting time, as there are so many new things that you may be experiencing for the first time. This informative animation has proved to be a really popular resource elsewhere, and we are really looking forward to our local mums being able to benefit from the expert advice in such a user friendly and accessible way, and being able to refer back to it at any time.”
New mums will be signposted to the animation by their midwife during their pregnancy to help them prepare, as well as following birth. It will be accessible on both Trust’s websites at www.worcsacute.nhs.uk or www.wyevalley.nhs as well as through their BadgerNet maternity notes app.
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We are delighted to welcome Dr Louise Bramble as the new Chair of the Herefordshire and Worcestershire Local Maternity and Neonatal System Board.
Dr Bramble, a GP Partner at Chaddesley Corbett Surgery in Kidderminster, and the Clinical Lead for NHS Herefordshire and Worcestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, takes up post on April 1, 2021.
She said: “I’m delighted to be taking on the role of Chair and am really looking forward to working with the LMNS team across Herefordshire and Worcestershire. There has already been so much outstanding work over the last few years under the chairmanship of Christobel Hargraves, and I’m excited about being able to support further improvements in the quality and safety of maternity and neonatal care and personalisation of our services for families.
“I have always been extremely passionate about improving care for children and providing them with the best start in life, and there is no better start than with a healthy pregnancy.”
