The Maternity Engagement Project

Maternity units working with multiple birth families at a Lincolnshire hospital trust have seen significant improvements thanks to a groundbreaking project run by the charity, Twins Trust. The project aims to improve adherence to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE, 2024a, b) guidelines for multiple pregnancies and quality standard 46, improving outcomes for families.

Pilgrim and Lincoln hospitals, part of the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, signed up for the Maternity Engagement Project in February 2023. Following initial audits in February 2023, re-audits were carried out in July 2024. The re-audits consisted of repeating the original audit process and comparing outcomes after changes were implemented. According to Twins Trust, since taking part, Pilgrim unit's NICE adherence has increased from 95.08% to 98.32%, and Lincoln unit's NICE adherence has increased from 67.44% to 95.69%, with both units seeing a reduction in neonatal admissions, and Lincoln's neonatal deaths in multiples reducing from 1.39% to 0.0%.