Care Quality Commission
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Most women positive about maternity care, but improvements needed in giving information and support, CQC says
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Women are positive about services with 92 percent rating their care as good or better
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Survey shows concerns over labour, birth and postnatal care: too many women still felt that they were left alone at a time when it worried them and are leaving hospital without the information and support they need
The Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) survey of women’s experiences of maternity services in 2010 is published today, showing some encouraging improvements since the survey in 2007. However, information and support still needs to improve to enable all women and their partners to be confident in caring for their babies.
More than half of all women in England who gave birth in February 2010 responded, with more than 25,000 mothers taking part from 144 NHS trusts in England that provide maternity services.
Women were asked about all aspects of their maternity care from the first time they saw a clinician, to care provided at home in the weeks following the birth of their baby.
CQC expects trusts to use the findings to target improvements and will feed the information into CQC profiles held on individual trusts, used by the regulator to assess where risks may lie.
Each trust’s individual results are available in CQC’s online Care Directory, which shows whether a trust's survey results are better or worse than average.
Overall, whilst women reported improvements in their care since the 2007 survey, there is still more to be done for all women to feel supported, particularly during the postnatal period as they settle into family life.
CQC chief executive Cynthia Bower said: ‘We’re encouraged by this survey’s findings, which will help NHS trusts assess their own services and focus on the areas women have said are important.
‘The direct views of people who use services are important in assessing the quality and safety of maternity care. With more women going direct to a midwife and more women having their booking appointment before they were nine weeks pregnant, it is clear that many trusts have taken on board national guidance and women are benefiting. This is a tribute to the people providing maternity care.
‘This reported improvement in antenatal care is encouraging, but sadly it is not mirrored in the care provided during labour and birth. Whilst many women report feeling involved in their care, it is particularly concerning that over a fifth of women are left alone during labour or birth when it worries them and it seems too many are not being encouraged to take more active birthing positions.
‘There have been few improvements in postnatal care, with worryingly fewer women saying they receive the information or explanations they need. New parents need to feel reassured at this particularly important time in their lives as they embark on parenthood. It is particularly important for trusts to focus their attention on improvements in this area and ensure that handovers to community services and support networks for new parents are managed effectively.
‘These survey results help us further develop an informed view of services across the country and feed into our systems for on-going monitoring of compliance with the essential standards of quality and safety.’
Notes to editors
During summer 2010, almost 45,000 women were asked about their recent experiences of maternity care received through one of 142 NHS acute trusts and two PCTs providing maternity services in England. More than 25,000 women took part in this self-completion postal survey, which, after taking account of undelivered questionnaires and those ineligible for inclusion, is a response rate of 52 percent.
All women who had a live birth in England in February 2010 were invited to take part in the survey. If an NHS trust had fewer than 250 deliveries in February 2010, then women who gave birth in January 2010 were also invited to take part in the survey.
As some maternity services may be provided by the local PCT or by the acute trust, depending on local commissioning arrangements, we have produced trust level reports containing data only for the questions that can be attributed to NHS acute trusts (and the two PCTs providing maternity services). All other results from the survey have been published at national level only.
The survey was co-coordinated on behalf of CQC by the Picker Institute Europe.
The trust scores are also be available on the NHS Choices website.
The 2007 survey of women’s experiences of maternity care
During the summer of 2007, the Healthcare Commission carried out the first survey of maternity services within the national programme of surveys about the experiences of NHS patients. The results from the survey were used, along with other data, to inform the Towards Better Births maternity services review published by the Healthcare Commission in January 2008.
For further information please contact the CQC press office on 0207 448 9401 or out of hours on 07917 232 143.
About the Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is the independent regulator of all health and adult social care in England. Our aim is to make sure that better care is provided for everyone, whether it is in hospital, in care homes, in people’s own homes, or anywhere else that care is provided. We also seek to protect the interests of people whose rights are restricted under the Mental Health Act. We promote the rights and interests of people who use services and we have a wide range of enforcement powers to take action on their behalf if services are unacceptably poor.
We are introducing a new registration system that brings the NHS, independent healthcare and adult social care under a single set of essential standards of quality and safety for the first time. Registration is a legal license to operate. We register health and adult social care services if they meet essential standards and we continuously monitor them to make sure they continue to do so as part of a dynamic system of regulation which places the views and experiences of people who use services at its centre.
