Women’s experiences of maternity care have improved over the last three years, but progress is needed in some critical areas, the findings of a survey published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) show.
The 2013 survey of women’s experiences of maternity care in England shows some improvements since the 2010 survey but highlights concerns around continuity of care, support during labour and birth, cleanliness and other issues.
The survey received responses from more than 23,000 women who had a baby in February this year and it covers all aspects of maternity provision; antenatal care, care during labour and birth and postnatal care.
One hundred and thirty-seven acute NHS trusts took part and their individual reports will help them compare their labour and birth services with those elsewhere in the country to identify good and poor performance.
The findings for England include:
• More women than in the 2010 survey felt they were always involved in decisions about their care, both antenatally (77%) and during labour and birth (74%).
• More women than in the 2010 survey said that most of the time they were able to move around and find a position that made them most comfortable during labour and birth (71%).
• More women said they definitely had confidence and trust in the staff caring for them during labour and birth, up from 73% in 2010 to 78%.
• More women than the 2010 survey reported that they were left alone at a time that worried them during labour and birth, up from 22% to 25%.
• Almost one in five women said their concerns during labour and birth were not taken seriously (19%).
Some questions can be compared with results from the previous surveys but others, such as those on cleanliness were new in the 2013 survey. Just over half (52%) felt that toilets were ‘very clean’, over a third (38%) fairly clean and almost a tenth (nine percent) not very or not at all clean.
Women were able to provide comments at the end of the questionnaire and 10,007 did so; and the majority of comments were analysed and grouped into key themes such as access to care, continuity of care, and quality of care. In the comments some women:
• Reported experiences of poor pain management with some feeling they were not able to access pain relief quickly or that they were given insufficient quantities to control the pain.
• Said they felt ‘bullied’ into breastfeeding and that the pressure to breastfeed made them feel isolated and guilty.
CQC chief inspector of hospitals Professor Sir Mike Richards said: “This survey is important because it tells us what is important to women, what they feel is working and what needs to improve. I’m encouraged there are improvements but in too many cases, the quality of care delivered is just not good enough. Women and their partners are being left alone when it worries them, toilets and wards are described as unclean, and some women are not given the pain relief they had expected or planned to use in their birth plan.
“Further findings of note include those about continuity of care, these suggest to me that women do not mind seeing different midwives if the information and messages they receive is consistent. Feedback in the comments shows at times, a truly shocking picture of experiences that should be the most joyous time in a woman’s life, not the most frightening.”
