New and soon to be parents and carers have a new champion to give their views and experiences of maternity services to for Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust.

Abi Cattlin, 30, from Southport has been appointed as chair of the Maternity Voices Partnership (MVP) in Southport, Ormskirk and Sefton to allow parents to give feedback about their experience. She takes over the role from outgoing chair Dani Gillet which will see her developing, leading and representing the partnership throughout the year.

The mother of two who gave birth to both of her children at Ormskirk Hospital said that she wants to increase awareness of the MVP and grow engagement from families who are using or have used local maternity services in the last few years.

The MVP is an NHS working group, a team of women and their families, commissioners and providers (midwives and doctors) working together to review and contribute to the development of local maternity care. Members include mums, dads, parents-to-be, grandparents, NHS doctors and midwives, and members of local community groups who provide their services and support to expectant mums and new parents and babies.

She said: “I’m passionate about providing a platform for ongoing feedback, ensuring that women and families are actively involved in development and improvement of their local maternity services. At the end of the day, women are the experts by experience and should have an equal role in the process of understanding local needs and developing innovative solutions to address them.’’

Listening events are held on a monthly basis in a relaxed atmosphere to encourage people to discuss their experiences, which is invaluable in helping Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust, NHS Southport and Formby Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and NHS South Sefton CCG to develop local maternity services.

Abi continued: “To me, the MVP is about being heard. We seek out the voices of those who have recently used or are currently using local maternity services and look for themes in the feedback. We then work together with Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust to change and improve care and ensure maternity services are centred around the people using them.

“We invite all women and birthing people to get in touch and help us work collaboratively together. If you've used our maternity services, or you'd like to help by doing something as simple as chatting with your local baby group, then we'd love to hear from you.”

For more information about the Maternity Voices Partnership, visit: https://voicesmvp.wixsite.com/website or email us at voices.mvp@gmail.com.

You can also follow the MVP on Twitter @mvp_sos or on Facebook to see when our meetings are at www.facebook.com/OrmskirkMaternityVoices