Lothian Maternity Voices Partnership

What is the Lothian Maternity Voices Partnership?

The MVP is a unique collaborative forum where the families who access maternity and neonatal services and the people who work for NHS Lothian get together to review these services. The charities and organisations that support families are also represented. Through open and constructive dialogue, the MVP aims to enhance the quality of care provided, advocate for women’s and birthing people’s choices and promote positive birthing experiences.

How can I get involved?

The committee is keen to welcome new members who will attend our 6 meetings per year and take an active part in our working groups which focus on specific improvement areas. There are also  other ways to get involved.  Get In Touch – Maternity Services (nhslothian.scot)

How do I share my views?

If you want to share feedback about your maternity care, you can send compliments, raise concerns or make a complaint to NHS Lothian Patient Experience Team: Tell Us About Your Experience (Compliments, Concerns & Complaints) – Your Rights & Privacy (nhslothian.scot)

Each personal story is unique but the Patient Experience Team 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.

Our plans for the future include

• 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 Vaginal Birth After a Caesarean section (VBAC).
• 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)

_{(* Please Note: This is a central NHS Lothian Switchboard. Please be prepared to specify which service you’re looking to contact)}