Newborn Information Hub

Poster Download

Background

The previously run baby café on the maternity ward had poor attendance from mothers. A postnatal ward environment survey of over 400 women in 2018 revealed women required more information on a range of aspects of newborn care. Extensive comments were made about the need to make the room more comfortable and welcoming. This QI project was undertaken to facilitate an improvement in newborn care information in a more relaxed less clinical environment.

Aim

To increase the attendance of mothers to the baby café by 10% and improve the quality of information provided to new parents on parenting a newborn by 10% by the end of March 2020.

Method

Six months after the start-up of the Newborn Information Hub parents attending the hub will be surveyed to gauge parent satisfaction about the environment and information provided. A simple feedback questionnaire asking the new parents of their satisfaction on a scale from 0 completely dissatisfied to 10 completely satisfied, asking for suggestions for improvements. Weekly attendance will be monitored.

Results

We performed a literature review to help understand how other institutions introduced ERAS.

We met our stakeholders to ensure our proposed changes were achievable, likely to benefit patients and agreeable to stakeholder.

Based on these findings, we produced an Enhanced Recovery protocol, including a plan of care, daily ward round entry sheets and daily patient targets.

Results:

Median length of stay was reduced from 13 to 7 days after introduction of ERAS.

Median time to pass wind reduced from 4 to 3 days.

There was no change in median time to open bowels (5 days)

Implications:

Due to engineering work the start date of the Newborn Information Hub has been delayed, intended launch is January 2020. External speakers on various topics of newborn care will entice new parents to the hub. An increase in attendance of mothers to the hub is anticipated by at least 10% and at least 10% increase in the quality of information about newborn care by the end of March 2020.

Possible teething problems such as an external speaker not being able to attend a session or the member of staff allocated to facilitate the session may not be able to run it at the proposed time. If the Newborn Information Hub is well received and attendance numbers are greater than anticipated we may need to find an alternative venue. Similar hubs could be run at low risk birth units.