Helping people make informed decisions about their maternity care in Devon

Devon Maternity & Neonatal Voices Partnership

Project case study

Helping people make informed decisions about their maternity care

Devon MNVP believes that better understanding of people’s needs and giving people more choice and control in their maternity care will lead to happier births. Empowering women, birthing people, and those around them, to make decisions that are right for them is central to delivering good practice in maternity care, so Devon MNVP worked with maternity staff to raise awareness of ‘informed consent’.

People are not always given the information they need

‘Informed consent’ is a hugely important issue for the service users that Devon MNVP speak to. Sadly, they regularly receive feedback about people feeling pushed into decisions about without the right information needed to feel comfortable.

The maternity staff Devon MNVP meet tell them they believe personalised care, including informed consent, is vital to good practice in maternity care.

Raising awareness to help people make the right choice for them

Devon MNVP Vice Chair for the Royal Devon University NHS Foundation Trust East worked with maternity staff to produce an infographic to help explain ‘informed consent’ to service users. The poster has been a real success and has been adopted and displayed across Devon. They also received great feedback nationally with other MNVPs around the country wishing to adopt it with in their Trusts.

What is informed consent?

When women and birthing people need to make a decision about their maternity care and the care of their baby, the law says that doctors and midwives should give them all the information they need to help them make a decision that is right for them. This is ‘informed consent’ and there are rules guiding staff about how to have conversations around informed consent.

About Devon MNVP