Developing a computerised decision making tool to help with decision making around place of birth MyBirthplace
- Improvement project
- Digital technology
- Patient experience
- Person-centred care
- Community and voluntary
- Shine 2012
- Project led by Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust in partnership with Solent University.
- Focused on community midwife services.
- Aimed to help women and their partners to make decisions about place of birth and support effective planning of maternity services.
- Developed a decision making tool which could be accessed online or through a mobile app, to help women and their partners to consider their thoughts and feelings about where they would prefer to have their baby.
The Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust team developed a decision making tool to help pregnant women and their partners to consider their thoughts and feelings about where they would prefer to have their baby. The aim of the project was to:
- provide pregnant women and their partners with objective information about different places to give birth, including national and local outcomes for each option
- encourage women to make a decision by 36 weeks of pregnancy
- support effective workforce and resource planning to make sure that local choices could be met safely.
After receiving training on how to use the tool, community midwives encouraged women to use the tool at home - either online or through a mobile phone app - before completing the process with their midwife at an antenatal clinic. The midwife documented the final decision in the woman’s maternity notes at 36 weeks of pregnancy.
Who was involved
The project team was led by the trust’s director of midwifery and included a data analyst, a professor of business technology at Solent University and a technical designer.
Impact
- 28 midwives trained to use the tool - 2 from each of the 14 community teams
- 166 women introduced to the tool from 25 weeks.
- 45% had decided about their preferred birthplace at 12 weeks. This increased to 86% at 36 weeks.
- 85% of questionnaire respondents said the tool was easy to use and 65% agreed that it helped them to make their decision.
Challenges
The team encountered challenges around data capture, timing of project events and engagement of midwives, especially as the project was introduced at a time of great change for the community midwives.
Since this project was completed...
As well as being commissioned in Portsmouth, the app is now about to be rolled out across the whole of Wessex and has also been commissioned in Scotland.
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