Ways of working through the Covid-19 pandemic – Maternity team (3 minute read)
Towards the end of March, the UK went into lockdown due to a new airborne virus, Covid-19. This lockdown saw unprecedented shifts in the way people work, with many services in hospitals around the country having to find different ways of working to care for patients.
We recently heard from the Diabetes Team about their experience and shift in working, but in this blog post we hear how to maternity team have coped.
We caught up with Ann Ellis, the Parent Education Manager at Barts Health, who provided us with an insight into what the maternity team have been up to during the pandemic. Ann has been facilitating the antenatal classes for 30 years and loves meeting new people in the process.
Despite Covid-19, women are still getting pregnant and babies are still being born. If you’re expecting a child in the near future or are generally interested in the way the maternity team have adapted in the face of Covid-19, this interview will be of benefit.
How big is your team?
Hello, I’m Ann. I am the team manager and I have two midwives working with me, all of us are full time.
How long have you been working as a Parent Education Manager?
I have been teaching antenatal classes for about 30 years now, but towards the start there wasn’t a team as such. I did it as part of my working hours and enjoyed it. I recognised many years ago that we really needed to include partners too, and we used to only teach one evening class per week as this was the only time they could attend.
Now, we do up to 4 or 5 evening classes per week for our four-week course, we also teach an all-day class over a Saturday or a Sunday. As mentioned previously, I think we did approximately 36 weekends last year as they were very popular being that they’re held on the same day.
The trust took a step to create a specific team for parent education in 2008 (lots of trusts don’t have a specific team for parent education). I had to apply and got the post in April 2008 and we have been a team ever since.
How has your role changed over the last few months?
My role has changed dramatically over the last few months! We are not holding face to face classes at present to adhere to NHS England recommendations for safety. I now feel that my role is to be there for our couples as someone they can contact when they have questions.
What are some of the things you’ve implemented to continue to care for couples during the pandemic?
My two colleagues have been redeployed to other areas of maternity so I am currently the only parent education midwife working in the team.
We usually book couples into classes when they are approximately 26-30 weeks pregnant and they either have a four-week course or an all-day class, whichever is their preference. Therefore, we work quite far in advance and as our service is highly sought after, we do have times when we have no availability to offer couples and they have to rely on cancellations (should they occur).
The first thing we had to do (whilst I still had my colleagues) was to contact couples informing them of the suspension of the classes. I then put together an information pack as a roundup of the pertinent information we cover in the classes and proceeded to send text messages to everyone to let them know we had an information pack and to email us if they wanted it. I also let couples know that they can contact me any time with questions and that I am happy to respond to their queries.
Women were asking if there were any virtual classes. As we don’t yet have the equipment to do this, I decided to make some videos myself and make them available for couples. I have also joined the Barkantine live Facebook chat and this seemed to be very popular so I may even do one specifically for parent education.
I have had a number of emails since then enquiring about the information pack and videos. Women are emailing in regularly to see if the classes are recommencing and I can only say no at this time. The videos have been greatly appreciated, with some women suggesting more topics to make videos of. Our director, Ali Herron, has also asked if I can take on the maternity social media platforms so I am able to keep people up to date on Facebook and Twitter too.
How have couples been coping?
Couples are understandably upset that they cannot attend the classes but know the reasons why.
Often, they are first-time expectant couples who have begun a journey they’ve never undertaken before and even the language they encounter is so confusing for them.
I think that they feel lost as they aren’t seeing the midwives in person and feel left out. Sometimes, just having the name and number/email address of someone they can connect with to answer any questions is invaluable.
It has to be said though that nothing replaces actually physically attending a class, meeting other expectant parents and possibly connecting with others, having a sense of camaraderie and having a laugh whilst taking on board all the information we give them (I usually have a good laugh during my classes too!).
I have recently had several one-to-ones with a few couples in our parentcraft room as we could stick to the social distancing quite easily and they really appreciated it. Anecdotally I spoke to one of the consultant obstetricians and he told me couples were coming in too early because they aren’t attending classes.
What has the response been by couples to the changes you’ve implemented?
On the whole, couples have been very understanding and I’ve had emails that thank us for our continued service and for us to stay safe at the end of their email. So sweet. They have been appreciative of the information pack, the videos, and the potential for us to provide virtual classes in the future.
What are some things that have worked well?
The Facebook Live chat seemed to work well and the staff there said they’d had over 150 views which is the most they’ve had since starting to do them.
We have to realise that in the 21st century, social media has a massive influence and we can utilise it more than we have done so far. I am really pleased I did the videos as couples get the information they need but it is more personal I think.
What are some things you’d like to improve on?
I would like to improve the website so that couples can find the information they need easily, and I don’t think this has been the case in the last few years.
I would definitely like a virtual tour of the delivery suite and both birth centres to be done and placed on the website. This is because before lockdown and Covid-19, we did weekly tours of the maternity unit and these were super popular, but we had so many people attending (the most one week was 50 people!) it was not safe. Unfortunately, we had no one else to help us.
Have there been any changes in practice that will influence care for years to come?
I believe a positive change within parent education has been using social media platforms and the use of media in general. Now is the time to start reflecting on how we have changed things and how we can improve our service. Suggestions are always welcome.