UNICEF praises Pennine Acute Trust Midwives for baby feeding advice

Dr Val Finigan, Consultant Midwife for the Infant Feeding Team at The Pennine Acute Trust

Midwives at The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust are celebrating after achieving an outstanding result in a recent breastfeeding support audit.

The audit, conducted by the World Health Organisation, UNICEF, analysed how the midwifery teams at both The Royal Oldham Hospital and Rochdale Infirmary cared for local mothers and their newborn babies before and after giving birth.

UNICEF contacted 90 local women from Oldham and Rochdale borough who had recently given birth at The Royal Oldham Hospital. They asked for detailed feedback from new mothers on topics such as, breastfeeding and bottle feeding support and advice, the care they had received throughout their pregnancy, during labour and about the care and help they had received after the birth by the community midwife team.

The Trust’s Maternity and Infant Feeding Teams have held a high UNICEF accreditation since 1998. Each Midwifery department must achieve a pass mark of 80%. The midwives at the Pennine Acute Trust achieved above this in every category from postnatal support, neonatal support to bottle feeding.

Carmel Duffy, UNICEF’s Senior Officer said that the mothers praised the experienced midwives, for example, one mother said that ‘even though it is busy, they sat with us to build confidence in feeding and were really lovely.’

For the Trust, it means the midwifery team can continue to demonstrate exceptional quality of care and support for breastfeeding and bottle feeding mothers and infants.

Dr Val Finigan, Consultant Midwife for the Infant Feeding Team at The Pennine Acute Trust, said: “Despite the challenges of the recent redesign of inpatient maternity services and the merging of Oldham and Rochdale midwifery teams, we have jointly succeeded to sustain the UNICEF standards for breastfeeding, demonstrating the quality of services provided by the Trust. The pass rates achieved are an outstanding example of the midwives’ ability to work together to ensure local women receive the best standards of care in relation to feeding and caring for their babies.”

On Monday 3 December, a new era of maternity and children’s services will be born for the women and families of Oldham, Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale borough. The Trust’s new purpose-built maternity and children’s unit opens at The Royal Oldham Hospital fully opens, including new maternity wards, postnatal wards, a midwife-led birth centre and Level 3 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

All antenatal services remain the same and are provided at Rochdale Infirmary and The Royal Oldham Hospital.