Maternity whānau voice

Engaging with our community through consumers of our maternity service continues to be one of the priorities of the Waitaha Maternity Quality and Safety Programme (MQSP).  The Maternity whānau voice formerly known as the Maternity Consumer Advisory Council has a large number of individual and NGO members who either attend meetings or receive the minutes and provide feedback on topics that they feel they can comment on.

The forum has continued to develop since 2017 and is now an essential part of the maternity system. 

Consumer members represent Maternity whānau voice at different hui, for example, the Women’s and Children’s Clinical Governance, Maternity Quality Clinical Governance and the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI) steering group.  Members do so as nominated by the Maternity whānau voice and are representative of all members and the groups they link into. The group provides the opportunity for information sharing, presentations, updates on maternity projects and networking. The meetings are held every six weeks and as a maternity service we actively seek feedback and consultation on quality mahi that we are reviewing or developing.

“Whakarongo ki o tatou māmā, Whakarongo mai to tatou whānau, in our consumer mahi this is the guiding factor of commitment, we have a responsibility to actively seek out and give safe spaces for our wāhine and their whānau to have a voice in the services they use within maternity and woman’s health.  Our Maternity whānau voice in Waitaha has a significant presence within all levels of our houora system, from giving a voice within research studies, attending governance meetings and other groups that by their actions or involvement have touchpoints in health with the consumers we represent.

We have been able to be a big part of some initiatives that support our wāhine, the Birth Afterthoughts Clinic has been established in Waitaha and is a direct result of the consumer voice telling us that there needed to be a mechanism to allow woman to talk through their birth in a safe way.  We are incredibly proud of this project and see it as the start of something even bigger in the future that will continue to meet the needs of our birthing population and their whānau.  We have made moves to make giving your experiences and seeking the rural and remote voice in this space a much easier process for our woman, with a view to better meet the needs of their community.  We are currently actively seeking members to join our roopu from our ethnically diverse whānau, disability, rangatahi and other areas of our community so we are able to reach as deeply into our wider Waitaha whānau voice as possible.  Our satellite group from Kaikoura continues to grow and give feedback to take into consideration. 

One huge positive move for Aotearoa that has happened as a result of the new health reform is the clear directive of Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora to seek out and listen to the consumer voice, our significant mahi in this area has us in a great position to support other parts of the system to be as active as we are in this space. 

We look forward to seeing the consumer voice embedded in to our wider hauora system as a whole, we are committed to being not only part of the change but leaders in the consumer voice within hauora”.

Na mihi Mahana,

Lisa Kahu

Te Tai O Marokura, Health & Social Services, Kaikoura

Chairperson Woman’s Health Advisory Council