Lancashire Teaching Hospitals is working with the Twins Trust to enhance the care provided to mothers who experience a multiple pregnancy.
The Twins Trust Maternity Engagement Project will help the Trust improve compliance the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance for twins and triplets as advised in the recent Ockenden report.
Adoption of NICE guidance for multiple pregnancies by maternity units across the UK to date has proven to not only be a sign of good practice, but has also shown to reduce still-births, neonatal admissions, neonatal deaths and emergency C-section rates.
Achieving the standard will help the maternity team build on their current antenatal care practices and ensure women with multiple pregnancies receive the best and safest quality care throughout their pregnancy.
The 12-month project has been funded by Baby Beat that funds research projects, equipment and additional resource to support babies, mums and mums-to-be being cared for in the two maternity units, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Gynaecology unit at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals.
Cathy Skidmore, Baby Beat Manager, said: “The midwives, doctors and other health professionals at Lancashire Teaching Hospitals provide wonderful care to all the women and babies who use our maternity services. Baby Beat is delighted to fund this project which will ensure that mums in our area, who, are expecting twins and triplets receive the specialist antenatal care and interventions to ensure the best possible outcomes for their babies.”
Janet Cotton, Divisional Midwifery and Nursing Director commented “We are extremely grateful for the ongoing support of the Baby Beat Charity that funds projects to help improve outcomes for mothers and babies within our care.”
Shauna Leven, Chief Executive Officer of Twins Trust, said: “We are pleased to be working with units like Lancashire Teaching Hospitals who are striving to provide the best antenatal care.
“Our Maternity Engagement Team is working on a quality improvement project with maternity units across the UK to ensure multiple pregnancy families receive the correct level of antenatal care. Unfortunately, not all units currently provide care in line with the NICE guidelines.
“The aim is to improve the outcomes for twin and other multiple pregnancies by ensuring multiple pregnancy care is delivered consistently and in line with national guidance – specifically NICE Guideline 137 (NG137).”
