Maternity Voices Partnership

A Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) is a team of people who provide feedback about their local maternity system. The panel includes maternity professionals (like midwives and doctors) and people with direct personal experience of the service, including women who have been pregnant and given birth, and their family members.

National Maternity Voices – Networking Maternity Voices Partnerships in England

Croydon Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) is a team of local women, men, midwives, doctors, health visitors, commissioners and other care professionals working together to review and contribute to the development and improvement of local maternity care.

We encourage women and their partners to join the MVP and help shape the future of maternity services in Croydon with their ideas, participation and voices. You can be involved in the MVP via our bi-monthly MVP meetings, small break off groups or by gathering information on women’s experiences using our Walk The Patch questionnaire. All of which help us set and achieve goals as an MVP and support women’s expectations. See the MVP website here.

If this sounds like something you would be interested in exploring, please contact Croydon MVP Chair Beverley Samways or Vice Chair Victoria, to arrange an informal chat.

Email us at croydonmvp@gmail.com . We look forward to hearing from you.

Could you help us to improve local maternity services?

Epsom and St Helier Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) is an independent group that works to improve maternity service in the area.

Our MVP is made up of:

  • NHS professionals
  • Groups that support pregnant women and new parents (such as NCT and local family & children’s centre’s)
  • Mums, dads, parents, and carers who’ve used Epsom and St Helier Maternity Services in the last five years.

If you’d like to join us to shape and improve your local maternity services, we would love to hear from you. Please email epsommaternityvoices@gmail.com.

How the Maternity Voices Partnership helps

The feedback we get from our service questionnaire, and from regular visits to wards and outpatient departments has helped us identify recurring themes, and work together to make improvements to the service. We also look at how the Trust is implementing NHS initiatives to improve maternity services.

Recently we have:

  • Helped develop new guidelines to support women using the Birth Centre, and for those choosing a water birth
  • Run focus groups to help improve the experience of having a caesarean, induction of labour, feeding your baby, care of diabetic families and many more.
  • Worked with the Trust to improve food available for partners
  • Made sure that red books and materials from Surrey and London NHS services are available at both hospital sites
  • Helped shape the maternity service plans for South West London and Surrey Heartlands (the Trust straddles these two NHS regions).

Getting involved

The success of the MVP relies on the diversity and experiences of its members. If you are interested in joining the Epsom and St Helier MVP and care about the future experiences of local Parents and their babies and can commit to a two hour meeting every two months then please contact us at epsommaternityvoices@gmail.com.

What is involved?

We meet six times a year to discuss how our maternity services are developing at Epsom and St Helier, and make sure that the views of local parents and groups are taken into account.

Don’t worry if you have never been involved in anything like this, we are very welcoming, and your views and experiences are very valuable to the Trust. You’ll be given plenty of moral support!

The group also runs the Trust’s service questionnaire and regularly visits the antenatal and maternity wards to get valuable feedback from people using Epsom and St Helier maternity services.

Do you want to improve maternity experiences for families in Kingston?

A movement for change

Kingston Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) is an independent advisory body, a group made up of parents, volunteers from community groups (e.g. NCT), senior midwives, obstetricians, GPs, health visitors, infant feeding specialists, doulas, etc., who work together as a critical friend to the Maternity Team in order to improve maternity services.

Get Involved

People who are interested in improving maternity care, and the experience women have throughout their maternity journey, are welcome to join us. 

Regular meetings
Join a regular structured meeting at Kingston Hospital to help shape decisions and make sure parents’ voices are being heard. 

Project groups
Action orientated people who are willing to both lead, or work as part of, a team to gather feedback from parents and communicate it into the hospital, and follow-up and report on the action taken.

Specific skills
Do you have a flare for, or experience in, an area that could help with specifics in a project? E.g. A designer, and analyst, a writer, researcher, a community leader etc.

Voices in the community initiative
We go out into the community (e.g. breastfeeding support groups, children’s centre play groups) seeking feedback on the experience of pregnancy, birth and postnatal care at Kingston hospital, and feeding this back in a summarised report.

Walking the Patch
We speak to new parents on the postnatal ward in order to hear their experience and implement quick actions where needed.

If you are interested in being involved please get in touch by contacting us via email: kingstonmvp@gmail.com or visit our website.

More information can also be accessed via: Facebook @KingstonMVP  Twitter @KingstonMSLC.

St George’s is working with local parents to improve Maternity Services.

We have created a Maternity Voices Partnership or MVP as an opportunity for parents who have had their babies at St George’s to get involved, feedback about their experience and hopefully help to shape their services in the future.

We need your help to do this. If you would like to share your story or give any kind of feedback both positive or negative, please email StGeorgesMVP@gmail.com and your information will be handled anonymously and confidentially.