Personalised care in maternity

The NHS ‘Long Term Plan’ was published in January 2019, setting out a clear ambition to expand the choices and control people have over their own care. There has been a call for a fundamental shift in how healthcare workers in all settings deliver care to patients. Personalised care is the keystone and patients have told us they want caregivers to take into account their individual values and preferences, ensuring choice and sharing control, while still providing care that is safe and based on high quality evidence.

This has seen valuable collaborations develop between clinicians, councils, local governments, community organisations and healthcare professionals in many areas, with an appetite to work differently and put patients at the centre of conversations. This has been proven to have several positive outcomes, including better adherence to treatment and improved patient and clinician satisfaction.

Incorporating personalised care and support planning into maternity care is the focus in our new e-learning resource for the Personalised Care Institute (PCI), which is supported by the Royal College of Midwives. We know that a personalised approach to the care of a woman and her family is central to delivering the best experience through her antenatal and postnatal journey and even beyond.