Patients and families report improvements in maternity care
Women receiving maternity care at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust have reported improvements in key areas of the service, according to this year's CQC Maternity Survey.
The CQC Maternity survey looked at the experiences of pregnant women and new mothers who used NHS maternity services in February 2025, results are now being released.
In our top scoring areas
- women reported feeling well-supported during labour, with few being sent home when worried about themselves or their baby
- Partners or support people were able to be involved in labour and birth as much as they wished, indicating strong family-centred care
- Staff communicated clearly and in an understandable way helping to support informed decision-making and staff consistently introduced themselves, helping build trust and a sense of safety.
Improvements
- Involvement in antenatal decision-making improved significantly, with more women feeling included in choices about their care.
- Confidence and trust in antenatal staff also saw a notable rise.
- Partner involvement during the postnatal hospital stay showed the largest improvement, with many more partners able to stay as long as needed. Personalised advice from midwives improved, with staff more often considering individual circumstances when giving guidance.
In some of our lower performing areas of the survey discharge delays were common, with many experiencing holdups when leaving the hospital. Some women felt the frequency of contact with midwives was not aligned with their needs, wanting either more or less contact than they received and also reported that staff did not always appear fully aware of women's medical histories.
Catherine Wilkins, Interim Director of Midwifery at University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust said: “The CQC survey is just one of the ways we gather feedback on the experience of families who use our services. The results help identify the areas where we have seen most improvement but also those areas where we need to apply more focus to make things better.
“Some pivotal examples of service development in the last year include a successful pilot allowing birthing partners to stay with their birthing person 24/7 to enable families to have the support and involvement with each other, as much as they need. We have also improved the formats in which information is provided, this supports personalised care planning and enables more robust and informed decision making.
“Part of our role in delivering care is to listen and to keep listening to our patients, the results of this survey alongside other feedback show that this is what we're doing. When we work in partnership and listen to women and their families we can deliver tangible improvements for them. We know this may not be the experience for all women but where we are getting it right it's important for people to know that, especially at such an important time in their lives.”
Sarah Saxby, Transformation Midwife at University Hospitals Plymouth said: “We work closely with Devon Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership to review the free text comments from the survey which provides us with an even richer source of information through which we can drive service improvement.”
“We strive to deliver the best care for women throughout their pregnancy and beyond and the results of the survey are reassuring that we are meeting this in many areas of the care we provide. However we are not complacent and know that there is more work to do, so that we are getting it right for more women and their families.”
Lara Grigg, Senior Lead at the Devon Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership said: “Devon Maternity & Neonatal Voices Partnership is pleased to be working collaboratively with University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust, using the voices of local families to drive positive change. We welcome the progress made in several key areas and look forward to continuing our work together to address the areas where further improvement is needed.”
Here are some messages from patients who recently received maternity care at UHP, and wanted to say thank you:
"I just wanted to say a massive thank you for making my planned c section the most incredible and smooth experience! Honestly, every single person will forever be so special to me for making that day the best one of my life so far and I can't thank them enough! You went above and beyond x" - Millie C
"Thank you to everyone who helped us through induction, labour, unplanned c-section and recovery. Bringing our miracle little boy Aiden into the world. You are all truly amazing……Hena, Chelsea, Jade, Naomi, Jack, Ben, Meehaw and everyone else (so sorry can't remember everyone's names). You made us feel so supported and our treatments couldn't have gone better. You all made it a wonderful experience" - Zoe H
"We just wanted to say a huge thankyou and show our appreciation for the amazing maternity team at Derriford. From start to finish of our journey, everyone we met was kind, caring and professional.
As a nurse myself, I know the struggles we all face & I appreciated every aspect of the care I received. I felt listened to and safe at all times.
We would love to particularly mention midwives Megan, Sophie and student midwife Katie. You were all brilliant and made my whole birthing experience the best it could be. Megan and Katie even stayed on beyond their shift time to support us. Unfortunately it ended in surgery, but our beautiful boy Oscar was born safely and we will be forever grateful to the whole team who brought him into the world.
Keep doing what you're doing - the impact it has had on our family is precious. Best of luck with your studies Katie, you will make a fabulous midwife!" - Hayley W
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