Better services for new mums in South Gloucestershire thanks to parents speaking out

The Coronavirus pandemic dramatically affected how new mothers received care, with many face-to-face appointments changed to telephone or online and scheduled reviews not taking place. 

In South Gloucestershire, in response to government guidelines 70% of health visitors were redeployed to other roles during the pandemic

New mums told Healthwatch that health visitors weren't providing the support they needed during the pandemic and they wanted better communication and more . information about topics such as safety at home with a newborn and breastfeeding. 

Working with local organisations, Healthwatch South Gloucestershire developed a survey for new parents to understand the issues better. They also held informal interviews with healthcare professionals and in-depth discussions with new parents. 

From this work, Healthwatch identified the following:

• The support people received was a 'postcode lottery' with many parents from a specific area getting no support from a health visitor.
• Mothers without any pre-existing mental health conditions were at risk, and conversations about mental health were not happening consistently. 
• Mothers felt isolated from peer support. 
• First-time mothers felt they needed more information. 

Many people felt they didn’t have the opportunity to discuss their mental health and that little support was offered.

“Asked but did not seem to care. I was very tearful and did not feel very supportive. I also expressed I was feeling lonely on a number of occasions and there was nothing really the HV team did to support (this was during COVID). Other local authorities put on Zoom programmes to get parents to get to know each other. We had nothing, I was just told to check Facebook.”

Mothers with pre-existing mental health issues, also felt that there was limited discussion or support regarding their mental health.

The impact of the pandemic also played a role in feelings of isolation, lack of support and anxiety, with parents not knowing where to go for information.

“I understand it was an unknown time with the lockdown - but I didn’t feel supported (as a first-time mum). No phone contact to ask how we were getting on…I didn’t even know who to ask for help.”

Involving parents in improving services

Healthwatch South Gloucestershire shared what people told them with the provider of the health visiting service, Sirona Care and the two local hospital trusts. 

As a result, the health visiting service is now including pregnant women and mothers in the development of new Baby Hubs to make sure that they will really meet people’s needs.

These Baby Hubs are intended to provide a friendly, safe and welcoming local community space where parents can find support and build relationships with practitioners and other parents.

This will not only impact families in South Gloucestershire, but the surrounding Integrated Care System in Bristol and North Somerset, where more Baby Hubs are planned to open in 2023.

The provider of the health visiting service also invited all the parents who shared their experiences with Healthwatch South Gloucestershire to get involved with further work to improve access to community services, including the health visiting service.

They are also developing a survey and a strategy to access a wide range of people who use their services to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to share their views. The two local trusts, North Bristol Trust and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston Hospital Trust have used the report recommendations in their work to improve pregnancy care.  

Improving training and education for health visitors

A team of health visitors have had further training in perinatal and infant mental health and are now working to support more staff develop their understanding and support skills around mental and emotional wellbeing.

Those in charge of commissioning the service have also revised how they monitor performance in relation to parents mental health needs. 

Providing further support for those who need it

Enhanced support is now offered to families with a higher need over a number of years. This support is triggered by – among other things – signs of perinatal mental health. 
 

Thanks to all the parents who shared their experiences with Healthwatch South Gloucestershire, care and support for families is improving and real change is being made both in South Gloucestershire and beyond.