Mums-to-be across Taunton and Bridgwater are now able to access important information about their pregnancy while on the go.
Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the maternity units at Musgrove Park Hospital and Bridgwater Community Hospital, has teamed up with registered charities, SANDS and MAMA Academy to provide pregnant women with wellbeing wallets.
The durable wallets are handy for women to keep their scan photos and pregnancy notes in right up until they give birth.
Stillbirth and neonatal death charity SANDS has kindly donated the money for the wallets, so they are free of charge to women.
The introduction of the wallets follows other initiatives at Musgrove to help keep babies safe, such as recordings of children giving smokefree messages played outside the hospital’s maternity unit if a patient or visitor is seen smoking.
A midwife has also developed an innovative training aid that shows women what happens to their placenta should they smoke during pregnancy.
Katy Evans, a maternity matron at Musgrove Park Hospital, said:
“As a hospital we want to do everything we can to make sure mums are as well informed as possible about their pregnancy.
“The wallets will be given to all women when they first see their midwife and contain important advice about the mother’s health, and that of her unborn baby.
“We hope that key messages, such as the monitoring of baby movements and the need to report a change in the baby’s movements straight away, become second nature to the woman as she carries the wallet with her.
“We want to thank both the MAMA Academy and SANDS for making it possible for us to provide mums with the wallets.”
Jo Anderson, South West network co-ordinator for Sands, said: “We are delighted to be able to help provide the wallets to mothers-to-be in the South West.
“They are an inspired way of getting really important messages across to mothers so they know how best to look after themselves, to empower them in making positive decisions around their pregnancy and inform them of the warning signs are if something might not be quite right.
“It adds another dimension to the work we are already doing with hospitals in the South West to support parents.”
MAMA Academy Chief Executive, Heidi Eldridge, has been delighted with the positive feedback already received.
She said: “The UK has one of the highest stillbirth rates in the developed world and all maternity providers should be working to reduce this. We are thrilled to be able to provide Taunton and Somerset with a means to give more babies the best chance of arriving safely”.