My Pregnancy Notes: Empowering women and midwives at Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals

Back in November, Doncaster and Bassetlaw Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (DBTH) went live with K2’s My Pregnancy Notes, enabling women to access their maternity notes online. Among the many benefits, women can now use their phones to check appointment times, complete their preferences throughout pregnancy, view leaflets and other information, and ask questions through the portal.

DBTH is already one of our longest-standing Athena customers and a fantastic team, so we were excited to find out how they have been getting on these first few weeks. We spoke with Maternity I.T. Clinical Lead Jacqui Yeates to ask about their early impressions as well as their hopes for the future.

How did you feel the implementation of My Pregnancy Notes went?

The implementation of MPN went predominantly well. I supported our Maternity Records Department in processing the initial requests we had from women to refer for booking via the new system. Women responded very positively in being able to refer themselves and have immediate access to their pregnancy notes.

What changes have you seen so far?

We have only been live for just a few weeks and we went live with new referrals first.  We have recently offered it to existing women too who are keen to transfer to the new My Pregnancy Notes.

What are the team’s initial thoughts?

It was surprisingly easy to adapt to the new way of working. Staff were naturally anxious over the change but got used to the new referral process quite quickly. Women should refer in quicker now as they can self-refer rather than waiting to find out via their GP how they refer to our service. The team love that up-to-date electronic links can be added so that lots of health advice, appropriate web links and patient information leaflets are available to the women.

What are your hopes for My Pregnancy Notes?

I hope that with women having immediate access to lots of health and pregnancy advice and being able to personalise their care plans that this in turn empowers women and contributes to improving outcomes.  It also will empower midwives in consultations and bookings as they will have access to any referral information and any ‘questions for my midwife’ so they know more about the woman before she enters the consultation room.

How do you think it will save time?

The self-referral process has now been communicated more widely so women will refer quicker to our Maternity Service. Our Maternity Records Department can manage their workload better as they won’t be constantly interrupted with phone calls for referrals. It will also aid the time management of midwives in community and in clinic as they will know in advance of the appointment how complex the woman’s history is so that they can allocate an appropriate amount of time for the appointment.

What advantages do you think it will have for the women?

Instant access to approved local and national guidance from the moment they refer to our Service. This will include health advice, what to expect in pregnancy and patient information leaflets. The personalised care plans for antenatal, labour and postnatal will be able to be completed at the woman’s leisure and aid in discussions between her and her midwife.