Preventing tragedy through education
Together, we are creating change at the heart of care.
As a main provider of training to maternity health professionals in the NHS, thousands of health professionals every year are making positive changes to the way they care for women and babies following our training courses.
Training thousands of professionals a year
We are one of the main providers of training to health professionals working in NHS maternity services. Our training:
- targets the causes of preventable harm and deaths of mothers and babies
- aims to improve care throughout the maternity and neonatal journey
- tackles inequalities
The training course topics are selected based on themes from national reports investigating avoidable harm and death, as well as priorities and counsel from our advisory panels – families and professionals.
Over the last five years, we have delivered training to around 15,000 health professionals – equivalent to roughly 50% of the total workforce in maternity. Professionals have attended from all over the UK, and even internationally.
Change at the heart of care
Health professionals have changed how they care for women, birthing people, and babies following our training. Nine of ten professionals told us that they made minor and major changes to the way they worked after the courses.
Professionals also left training with more knowledge of life-saving skills and information, feeling more confident in important areas of practice, and more empowered to improve their care.
“[Our community midwives] delivered a footling breech/cord prolapse at home on Friday morning and managed to resuscitate the baby in the ambulance on the way to hospital. One of the community midwives at the delivery attended the Obstetric emergencies in the community on Wednesday and said that the study day helped her to save the baby's life! Baby is currently doing well. Just wanted to share the value of the work these study days provide!”
I now ask much more in depth mental health questions at both ante and postnatal contacts. I ask more about mental health history and routinely ask women if they feel able to recognise symptoms and how they can seek support if they need it.
Decades of Promoting Safer Care
Baby Lifeline began its expert-led training over 20 years ago. Working with the much-respected and admired late Professor Richard Johanson, we developed the BIRTH Series (Bringing Interactive Responsive Training to Hospitals).
Our focus over the last 20 years has been to develop training which relates and directly responds to the critical factors causing avoidable tragedies in maternity.
Budget restrictions in the NHS have led to a reduced investment in training, in particular for external training where the interaction between those from different professions and different organisations is beneficial to maintaining standards of care. Leading professionals form our extensive faculty to provide valuable training all over the UK.