Epsom and St Helier Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP)

Could you help us to improve local maternity services?

Epsom and St Helier Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) is an independent group that works to improve maternity service in the area.

Our MVP is made up of:

• NHS professionals
• Groups that support pregnant women and new parents (such as NCT and local family & children’s centre’s)
• Mums, dads, parents, and carers who’ve used Epsom and St Helier Maternity Services in the last five years.

If you’d like to join us to shape and improve your local maternity services, we would love to hear from you. Please email epsommaternityvoices@gmail.com.

How the Maternity Voices Partnership helps

The feedback we get from our service questionnaire, and from regular visits to wards and outpatient departments has helped us identify recurring themes, and work together to make improvements to the service. We also look at how the Trust is implementing NHS initiatives to improve maternity services.

Recently we have:

• Helped develop new guidelines to support women using the Birth Centre, and for those choosing a water birth
• Run focus groups to help improve the experience of having a caesarean, induction of labour, feeding your baby, care of diabetic families and many more.
• Worked with the Trust to improve food available for partners
• Made sure that red books and materials from Surrey and London NHS services are available at both hospital sites
• Helped shape the maternity service plans for South West London and Surrey Heartlands (the Trust straddles these two NHS regions).

Getting involved

The success of the MVP relies on the diversity and experiences of its members. If you are interested in joining the Epsom and St Helier MVP and care about the future experiences of local Parents and their babies and can commit to a two hour meeting every two months then please contact us at epsommaternityvoices@gmail.com.

What is involved?

We meet six times a year to discuss how our maternity services are developing at Epsom and St Helier, and make sure that the views of local parents and groups are taken into account.

Don’t worry if you have never been involved in anything like this, we are very welcoming, and your views and experiences are very valuable to the Trust. You’ll be given plenty of moral support!

The group also runs the Trust’s service questionnaire and regularly visits the antenatal and maternity wards to get valuable feedback from people using Epsom and St Helier maternity services.