Warm welcome for new maternity voices partnership
A NEW partnership which aims to listen to and represent the voice of mothers in Shetland has been praised by members of the NHS Shetland board.
Maternity Voices Partnership Shetland was set up in 2025 with the goal of giving mothers a safe space to speak about their experiences of giving birth, which then can be fed back to the NHS.
Most of the feedback about the maternity unit in the Gilbert Bain Hospital in Lerwick has been “phenomenally positive”, NHS Shetland’s board meeting on Tuesday morning heard.
Speaking at the meeting, patient lead Rhiannon Pearson said that while there are eight mothers on the partnership’s board the group is keen to increase its membership.
“The partnership is made up of mums who have ideally experienced services in Shetland or in Aberdeen the last three years” she said.
“We also have representatives from the maternity department, the health visiting team, the infant feeding lead and we usually have representatives from Grampian as well to represent Aberdeen.”
Sadie Meadows, who is one of the other mothers involved, also told the meeting that the partnership has been a useful way to “bridge the gap” where people perhaps have not wanted to formally complain about their experience, or submit praise.
She said the partnership, which meets four times a year, has also been able to address misinformation which may have circulated in the community.
The meeting heard that the group has raised awareness of antenatal feeding sessions, and how new mothers are able to request from maternity a debrief about their experience.
Other aims include improving bereavement care and allowing families to influence decision-making for their care.
NHS Shetland board member Karen Eunson said the partnership was “such a good example of how patients can have a positive impact for patients, but also for the service itself and for the staff”.
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Kathy Hubbard said she was “delighted” to see the emergence of the partnership and added that it is a “constant struggle” to know how to engage more people in how services are shaped, perceived and experienced.
NHS Shetland chief executive Brian Chittick also said it was important for the health board to “hear the lived experience voice and reflect that back into how we want to improve things”.
Meadows said the feeling of community with the maternity service at the Gilbert Bain Hospital “makes such a vulnerable time a lot easier”.
Pearson said negative experiences have often been about related to travelling to Aberdeen for maternity services.
The comment came after board member Emma Macdonald asked if partners of mothers can provide feedback.
Pearson said that the partnership could take that point on board.
One example she highlighted was that if a woman is in Aberdeen to give birth and they are staying outside hospital accommodation, they would not be able to claim taxi expenses back if they went into labour in the middle of the night.
She said the policy was that bus fares could be claimed back, but not taxi costs.
NHS Shetland chairman Gary Robinson said “anything that we can do to try to help make that cross board experience better I think is exactly the kind of things we want to be hearing about”.
A contact email address for the partnership is shet.mvp@nhs.scot.
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