North Bristol NHS Trust launches Continuity of Care (CoC) within Maternity Services
NBT is now providing all women with a named midwife through their care. This service follows the recommendations in the Better Births programme and is known nationally as ‘Continuity of Carer’, which involves giving women Continuity of Care (CoC) throughout their pregnancy, birth and postnatal period.
Each woman will get to know a team of up to eight midwives, one of whom will be her named midwife. She will be seen by either this midwife or one of the other team at all stages of her pregnancy, birth and postnatal period. Women will have a point of contact available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Our CoC Jade team are based at Cossham Birth Centre and our Lilac team at Southmead Health Centre, with further teams launching over the coming year.
We have also introduced an additional new team which started in September 2019 known as the Cedar team. Cedar is led by specialist midwives and is specifically for women who require extra support.
Alongside launching CoC women will also be are also able to access new additional services at Cossham Birth Centre including:
• Breastfeeding support.
• NIPE checks.
• Antenatal checks for women with an uncomplicated pregnancy.
• Review of uncomplicated women who think they may have had Spontaneous rupture of membranes after 37 weeks.
• Review of women who feel they have had Reduced fetal movements and are 26 weeks or less.
• Coming soon - online Active Birthing classes
CoC helps build trust and has benefits to both the woman and her baby:
• An increased chance of spontaneous vaginal birth and less likely to need forceps or ventouse.
• A shorter duration of labour.
• Less pain relief and less likely to have an epidural.
• Reduced chance of a caesarean and quicker recovery following birth.
• Less likely to have negative feelings about your birth experience.
