Pregnant women across Dorset are set to benefit from a new “Labour Line” telephone service launched this month.
Dorset Maternity Labour Line is operated by midwives 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and was launched on the 11th of April. The service offers advice and support to women who think they are in labour. It also supports women who are concerned about reduced fetal movement and unexplained pain or bleeding.
New mother Felicia Yang who has been living in Bournemouth for over two years said the service is very helpful:
“As a new mother, there is too much unverified information on internet, sometimes it can be difficult to know what is accurate or not. If something doesn’t feel right with the baby, then I would panic because I wouldn’t know where or who to ask. This new service is quite useful, I can phone them at 5 o’clock in the morning when I can’t feel my baby’s movement and still speak to somebody. ”
Linda Patten, a local midwife from Poole Hospital, and the face of the campaign says,
“As a local midwife I am really proud to be part of this new service and think it will make a big difference to women at what can be a scary time. We find that women are more relaxed in their own homes, so one of the aims of the Labour Line, is to allow women to be supported at home for as long as possible before going to the ward.”
Some mothers say there are similar services provided by the local government already. However, Nickie Ashby from Dorset Maternity Labour Line says: “the service aims to provide a one-stop service so that mums don’t have to phone a lot of places to get receive the help and reassurance they need”.
Ms. Ashby believe this new servers could give as many advise as mother can get, especially mother without experiences of giving birth.
Maternity leaders from Poole, Bournemouth and Dorset Hospital Trusts have worked with NHS Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group and South West Ambulance Service Trust (SWAST) to provide the new service across all of Dorset following the successful implementation of this scheme in Hampshire two years ago, which has award winning results.
For more about the news Video package available here.
