30. Alison Wright - personalised maternity care. Opportunities and challenges.

Wild Card - Whose Shoes?

Today I am talking to a ‘Fab Obs’.

#FabObs is the hashtag we use in our #MatExp social movement - an obstetrician who ‘gets it’. Listening to what matters to women.

Finding ways to prioritise, obviously, the safety of mother and baby, but really listening to women – and indeed helping them tease out the choices and birth options.

And today that #FabObs is Alison Wright. Alison is the immediate past Vice-president of the RCOG (Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists) – a big advocate for the RCOG women’s network, embedding women’s voices into every aspect of the college‘s work. Forward-thinking and exciting.

Alison has led the development of ‘I decide’ - a tool enabling women to think through choices and decisions in labour.

As well as being a champion of maternity experience, Alison is also ‘just’ an everyday ‘Obs and gynae’ doctor.
Lemon lightbulbs 🍋💡🍋

• LISTENING to women and families throughout their birth journeys and pregnancy
• Providing personalised care in maternity services, in times of staffing pressures and recruitment difficulties
• Personalised care means different things to different people
• Teasing out what matters to you - #WMTY
• Being honest with women, sharing information about difficult topics eg anal sphincter tears
• Largely, women want to know what might happen. Don’t assume they don’t
• Information is key! It gives controll
• Creative methods useful for sharing information and breaking down barriers to engagement
• Tim Draycott’s innovative work on the Odan device
• ‘I decide’? - a clever acronym - check it out! Nadine Montgomery ruling re informed consent
• Shoutout for Florence Wilcock, champion of personalised care; co- founder of #MatExp
• Involving Maternity Voices Partnerships and NHS Resolution in teasing out the future
• Should we be looking to solve problems in the short or long term?
• The RCOG Women’s Network is influential
• Perceived tensions between what women want and what clinicians want. Actually, we all want the same thing!
• Shadowing other healthcare professionals is really useful - (mutual) shadowing an antenatal teacher
• #NoHierarchyJustPeople is a key #MatExp mantra
• Blue light - the Obs Pod Emergency!
• Family Integrated Care - new #WhoseShoes work 😀
• Let’s encourage all obstetricians to get involved! To have a seat at the table!
• Ask the obstetrician 🍋💡🍋
• Relationships matter. Form a relationship with your obstetrician
• People don’t like the unexpected - easier to deal with if you know what might happen
• “If you start being a patient advocate, you ’ll never have a career in medicine!“
• ⏩ Huge shift in thinking! Bring together the patient experience and the clinician’s experience through coproduction
• Important not to swing too far ⏩ everyone has choice, do whatever you like! 😬
• No dumping! Healthcare professionals need to accept responsibility, to steer choice sensibly
• Informed choice. But make it realistic. What would you do in my position?
• Clinicians have responsibility to give evidence from their experience, their opinion.
• We’re all on the same side! Let’s work together! Obstetricians are a key part in this!

We LOVE it when you leave a review!
If you enjoy my podcast and find these conversations useful
please share your thoughts by leaving a review (Apple is easiest to leave a review) and comment on your favourite episodes.
I tweet as @WhoseShoes and @WildCardWS and am on Instagram as @WildCardWS.
Please recommend 'Wild Card - Whose Shoes' to others who enjoy hearing passionate people talk about their experiences of improving health care.

Bab

1. 30. Alison Wright - personalised maternity care. Opportunities and challenges. (00:00:00)

2. The importance of LISTENING to women and families throughout their birth journeys and pregnancy (00:02:35)

3. Providing personalised care in maternity services, in times of staffing pressures and recruitment difficulties (00:03:00)

4. Personalised care means different things to different people. The NHS long-term plan … (00:03:30)

5. Teasing out what matters to you … #WMTY (00:04:46)

6. We need to be honest with women. We need to share information about difficult topics eg anal sphincter tears. (00:06:40)

7. Largely, women want to know what might happen. We mustn’t assume that they don’t. (00:07:02)

8. Information is key! It gives us control. (00:08:14)

9. Creative methods useful for sharing information and breaking down barriers to engagement (00:10:00)

10. Innovation. Tim Draycott’s work on the Odan device (00:11:10)

11. What is ‘I decide’? Following the Nadine Montgomery ruling re informed consent and choice (00:12:03)

12. ‘I decide’ is an acronym. What does it stand for? (00:14:01)

13. Shout out for Florence World Cup, champions personalised care (00:15:28)

14. Inclusive! Involving Maternity Voices Partnerships and NHS Resolution in teasing out the future (00:16:07)

15. Should we be looking to solve problems in the short term or also the long term? (00:16:39)

16. We still need to make sure that things work in the short term! (00:17:20)

17. The RCOG Women’s Network (00:18:14)

18. Perceived tensions between what women want and what clinicians want. But actually, we all want the same thing (00:18:22)

19. Shadowing other healthcare professionals is really useful. Alison talks about (mutual) shadowing an antenatal NCT teacher, and what she learnt (00:19:35)

20. It is good to cut across the hierarchy! #NoHierarchyJustPeople is a key #MatExp mantra! (00:20:37)

21. Shoutout to #FabObs Flo, Florence Wilcock, co-founder of #MatExp (00:20:50)

22. Blue light - the Obs Pod. Emergency! (00:21:42)

23. Family Integrated Care. Some new #WhoseShoes work. 😀 (00:25:20)

24. Let’s encourage all obstetricians to get involved! To have a seat at the table! (00:26:35)

25. Ask the obstetrician! (00:26:52)

26. Relationships matter. Form a relationship with your obstetrician (00:28:00)

27. People don’t like the unexpected. It is easier to deal with if you know what might happen (00:29:30)

28. “ if you start trying to be patient advocate, you will never have a career in medicine!“ (00:30:09)

29. Huge shift in thinking! coproduction! (00:31:00)

30. Bringing together the patient experience and the clinicians experience through coproduction (00:31:40)

31. Important not to swing too far in the other direction – everyone has choice, do whatever you like! (00:32:44)

32. No dumping! Healthcare professionals need to accept responsibility, to steer choice in a sensible way (00:33:00)

33. It is all about informed choice. But make it realistic. What would you do in my position? (00:33:52)

34. Clinicians have the responsibility to give me evidence from their experience, their opinion. (00:34:50)

35. We’re all on the same side! Let’s work together! Obstetricians are a key part in this! (00:36:19)