Stakeholder Advisory Network
The Cherish Stakeholder Advisory Network (SAN) help shape our project and act as critical friends to ensure we do not overlook any aspect of the programme planning and development. Together we have identified five key themes that have come out of our work so far.
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About the SAN
Spontaneous labour and birth is important to lots of different people for a range of different reasons. The Cherish Stakeholder Advisory Network (SAN) has been set up to make sure that that the team understands what is important and why, for those receiving maternity care, as well as those responsible for delivering that care.
The Cherish SAN is made up of a range of different people with a shared goal to improve the experience and outcomes for those aiming for spontaneous, physiological labour and birth. These include new mothers and parents, birth workers such as doulas, advocates, antenatal educators, charity organisation representatives, birth improvement campaigners, obstetricians, midwives and researchers. If you would like to be part of this diverse network, please email us at Cherish@city.ac.uk.
Our public and service user co-investigators, Michelle Quashie and Jo Dagustun, are in charge of the Cherish SAN activities. The flow chart below gives an overview of the Cherish SAN engagement work.
- First SAN engagement event: Online project launch, Jan 2023
- Newsletter 1
- Online survey and webinar
- Second SAN engagement event: Hybrid realist care evaluation, May 2023
- Newsletter 2
- Online survey and webinar
- Third SAN engagement event: Initial results feedback, Sept 2023
- Newsletter 3
- Online survey and webinar
- Final SAN engagement event: Support package feedback, Jan 2024.
Themes
These are some of the themes that have come up from the work we have been doing with the Cherish SAN so far.
Theme 1: inclusivity and diversity
- Diversity, inclusivity, and representation are vital when planning and designing all aspects of maternity care and included and consulted at the start of any project.
- Black British women and birthing people have the worst maternal and neonatal outcomes, followed by those from other ethnic minority groups. Their experiences and recommendations should guide all research and maternity care planning.
Theme 2: Paralysing the physiology
- Birth environment is important
- Information and understanding of physiology are lacking. Lack of transparency around sharing of information accommodates bias and is contributing to the inequalities in maternal and infant outcomes.
Theme 3: Effective clinical working environment
- Belief in physiology is key
- Effective multidisciplinary approach where everyone shares the same vision
- Supportive working environment is essential
- Having clear clinical parameters is essential – like the opti-breech trial
- Primary care model for continuity of midwifery care
- Out of hospital birth – homebirth and freestanding midwifery units
- Consultant midwives act as gatekeepers - facilitator and barrier for spontaneous labour and birth.
Theme 4: Emancipation – giving women and birthing people the control
- The principles of Cultural safety are essential and should be incorporated into all aspects of care
- How can the support package ensure bodily autonomy and the principles of human rights law are upheld acknowledging that women and birthing people have power over their labour and birth?
- Designing a service around the woman and her family to ensure that personalised care planning is a reality.
- Language to encourage informed decision-making.
- Ensure evidence-based information regarding choice to maximise physiology is transparent, accessible on various platforms in various languages and available to all including supportive partners and advocates.
Theme 5: Personalised and attentive care – what women and birthing people want
- Most women and birthing people want physiological labour and birth. Discussions on how best to achieve this should be led by those giving birth and not shaped by perceptions of risk, bias or coercion.
- Mental and emotional well-being is equally as important as physical well-being.
