Improving births

We’re improving care across our maternity services

• We’re the first unit in the country to have maternity tracker list validators. They check on women at key points of pregnancy to make sure they have the right appointments so we can identify and resolve any issues.
• We’ve improved our maternity classes, with better attendance at our infant feeding class, a new after caesarian birth class and clinic, and plans for a perinatal pelvic health class.
• Our perinatal pelvic health class runs every week at Northwick Park, so 
  women can see a consultant midwife, consultant obstetrician, and specialist physiotherapist in a one-stop shop.

We’re improving how we look after women at risk of gestational diabetes in our antenatal care

We now:

• Record ethnicity so that we’re in line with NICE screening guidance
• Screen women who are from ethnic backgrounds with a high prevalence of diabetes
• Help women manage their gestational diabetes to help prevent complications
• Hold all-day diabetes clinics and we've expanded our diabetes specialist midwife clinic at Central Middlesex Hospital
• Use the GDM-Health app to monitor glucose levels remotely to help women manage their condition without needing to come to hospital
• Support women to make healthier lifestyle choices to prevent early-onset type 2 diabetes after they've given birth.

• We’ve set up seven teams in our community midwifery service
• Three of our teams are in Brent, three are in Harrow
• Our final team focuses on babies that need our care after being 
  born at another maternity unit, outside our catchment area
• Between September and December 2023, we averaged 91% first day
  postnatal visits after leaving hospital, at home or in our clinic.

• We’ve introduced the LifeStart trolley to look after new born babies 
  who need some extra support, while keeping them as close to their 
  mum as possible
• We use a fetal pillow to improve the way we deliver babies by Caesarean 
  birth at full dilation, or after we've tried an instrumental vaginal delivery.

We’re improving how we look after women at risk of gestational diabetes in our antenatal care

We now:

• Record ethnicity so that we’re in line with NICE screening guidance
• Screen women who are from ethnic backgrounds with a high prevalence of diabetes
• Help women manage their gestational diabetes to help prevent complications
• Hold all-day diabetes clinics and we've expanded our diabetes specialist 
  midwife clinic at Central Middlesex Hospital
• Use the GDM-Health app to monitor glucose levels remotely to help women manage their condition without needing to come to hospital
• Support women to make healthier lifestyle choices to prevent early-onset type 2 diabetes after they've given birth.

Email our diabetes specialist midwives