Lothian Maternity Voices Partnership

Are you pregnant and living in the Edinburgh & Lothian area?
Have you had a baby recently?
Are you the parent of a young child?

Find out more about the Maternity Voices Partnership

What is the Lothian Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP)?

An MVP is a unique way of improving maternity services by listening to the families who use them. Volunteer parents meet with NHS Lothian midwives, doctors and administrators six times a year. They work together to understand the issues, find solutions and make changes where needed. The local charities and organisations that support families are also represented. Through open and constructive dialogue, the MVP aims to advocate for women’s and birthing people’s rights, enhance the quality of care provided and promote positive birthing experiences.

How can I get involved?

The opinions and real experiences of our parent members are essential to help shape and improve our local maternity and neonatal services. As a member of the Maternity Voices Partnership you can really get involved. Your views are invaluable to give maternity professionals a service user’s perspective.

No prior experience is required other than your experience of the maternity and/or neonatal services in NHS Lothian.

The MVP is keen to welcome new members who will attend our regular meetings and take an active part in our working groups which focus on specific improvement areas. If you can offer your contribution to the work of the group, either through commenting on draft proposals/offering feedback and ideas for focus or simply attending and contributing to the discussions, please contact us.

We would like to hear from all parents across our service user community. EVERYONE’S VOICE MATTERS.

Please get in touch – Get In Touch – Maternity Services (nhslothian.scot)

How do I share my views?

NHS Lothian is keen to hear your views on your recent maternity services experience. Let your voice be heard.

You can give direct feedback about your maternity care by filling up the NHS Lothian Maternity Care Experience survey. You can do a short survey (5 min) or a longer survey (15-20 min).

If you want to give a compliment, raise concerns or make a complaint about your maternity care, please see Giving Feedback on My Care.

Are you a dad, partner or co-parent? We value your feedback too. Please share your thoughts and suggestions with the Patient Experience Team or on CareOpinion.

Each personal story is unique but the Maternity Voice Partnership will identify areas of concern and common themes. This helps to identify where the issues are and enables us to take action.

What has the MVP done?

Some big projects ( we helped design the Lothian Birth Centre when it was built, we worked in partnership with NHS Lothian to create the maternity services website) and some smaller ones (we helped write a new leaflet on induction of labour; we designed the BRAIN sticker to support decision-making; we met with the hospital catering services to give new mums more meals options).

What are we doing now?

Supporting decision-making: an MVP working group continues to look at how best to support women when they are making decisions about their care by ensuring they get the right information from NHS staff at the right time.
Giving everybody a voice: an MVP working group is currently running a number of initiatives to ensure families of all backgrounds are represented and can participate in improvement projects.
Induction of labour: we are developing information focused on the options available at each stage of an induction, including the decision to have an induction or not, and supporting service changes to improve the process.
Continue to give parents more options to have their say by developing new ways to feedback, e.g. through online questionnaires/surveys and local community events.
Start a working group on birth choices, in particular options for birth after a Caesarean section,
Continue to help improve communication from NHS Lothian and find better ways of sharing information, including having a social media presence.
Continue to listen to your views to help improve and develop local services.

If you’d like to know more about what we are doing and what goes on at our meetings, please read the minutes of our meetings. They are written for you.

What does the MVP not do?

Sadly, we cannot deal with personal queries from individuals about their clinical care and we are not qualified to deal with complaints.

If you have personal questions about your maternity care, please speak first to your midwife, health visitor or GP. If you would like to discuss your experience, in confidence, with someone not directly involved in your care you should contact your hospital for help and advice (Simpson Centre for Reproductive Health: 0131 536 1000^(*) or St John’s hospital: 01506 523 000^(*)).

If you wish to make a formal complaint about your care, please go to this section of NHS Lothian website: Tell Us About Your Experience (Compliments, Concerns & Complaints) – Your Rights & Privacy (nhslothian.scot)