Maternity booking is changing on 1 June

From 1 June 2021, as part of improvements for people who use maternity services, Gloucestershire Hospitals has developed a new maternity booking system for those who are newly pregnant or have moved into the area and would like to access midwifery services in the county.

Rather than presenting to a GP surgery, maternity services can be accessed via a portal on the Gloucestershire Hospitals website. A midwife from their local team will make contact within a few days of the simple booking form being submitted online. Once the form has been submitted, people will receive information about our maternity services, as well as links to relevant information and useful websites.

Better Births Midwife Kay Davis said:

“People can make contact as early as they wish after a positive pregnancy test, but ideally before they are 10 weeks pregnant, so that our midwives can discuss relevant information about personal and family history, which may impact on the pregnancy.

“To book with us, people simply need to fill in their details and have their address and postcode, their GP Surgery postcode and the estimated date of their last period to hand.”

The new system has already been piloted successfully during May in three GP surgeries in the county. The process has been designed to make accessing maternity services easier and reduce the need for GP surgeries to signpost new bookings to midwives, preventing any delays that women experience when accessing midwifery care.

People who do not have access to the Internet or require further assistance with completing the form should still attend their GP Practice where support can be provided. Should people require translation services, this can be noted on the form and a midwife will arrange this to meet their communication needs.

For further information, please contact ghn-tr.comms@nhs.net

To access the form, go to www.gloshospitals.nhs.uk/maternity-booking