In recent years, there have been significant increases in risk factors for pregnant women and birthing people including age, lifestyle factors and deprivation which may require more complex care.
Since our last update in May, a huge amount of work has continued to take place across Greater Manchester to further understand the local maternity system, listen and engage with stakeholders, and identify opportunities to improve our outcomes for our women and babies so that they are at the heart of everything we do.
Update
- While the workforce position is improving, there remains significant gaps. Work is underway to urgently address and fill these gaps. This includes funding to retain experience midwives and attract more staff to work in maternity. This will ensure teams have a full complement of staff – with the right skill mix – so staff can provide the specialist care and support they are trained in, to mothers and babies.
- Smoking cessation rates during pregnancy have improved. During the last six years, the Greater Manchester Smokefree Pregnancy programme has supported more than 6,000 pregnant women and their partners to quit smoking.
- Rates of stillbirths have begun to reduce again but we are still below ambition. Trusts are increasing the sharing of learning across services to ensure all learning becomes embedded in practice
- Greater Manchester has a complex population and a changing demographic over the last decade. This means 43 per cent of women who access maternity services in Greater Manchester are from minority ethnic communities (compared to the England average of 33 per cent). 28 per cent are from our most deprived areas of our city-region (compared to national average of 14 per cent). Quality improvement programmes are taking place across Greater Manchester. These include listening to feedback, and looking at data, so we can tailor our approach to supporting women and families. This will continue through a lens of equity and equality ensuring the services offered reflect the population we are serving
- Making best use of digital technology ensuring people can access care in the right place, at the right time, keeping safe, personalised care front and centre and supporting women’s choice
Chief nursing officer
Mandy Philbin, chief nursing officer for NHS Greater Manchester, said: “We know there is some way to go achieve our ambitions. We are continuing to make progress to ensure maternity services and health outcomes improve for women and their families.
“We want to better understand and address issues affecting women and birthing people and are listening and acting on all feedback. Tackling inequalities in maternity care is an absolute priority. We are working hard to ensure all expectant parents receive high quality and compassionate care.”
