HealtH Matters 29
suPPOrt
programme involving and appealing to Annual Midwifery Conference. In November
teenagers and their birth partners. 2009, she was also prize winner at the
With the help of colleagues in the IT
“With the help of
National Council of Nursing and Midwifery
Department and using the Maternity
colleagues in the
9th Annual Conference held in Croke Park,
Information System we developed a system Dublin.
to identify the teenager/young person from
It Department and
first point of contact with the hospital's
services.
using the maternity
We alert the teenagers about the
Information system we
Ellis Briggs, who
antenatal classes by text message. Young
mums were consulted about the best way
developed a system to
attended the young
to translate the alerts into text format. We
also put into practice a number of simple
identify the teenager/
mums Programme,
ideas to make the classes more attractive
young person from first
said “I really enjoyed
to teenagers.
We provide a light, healthy lunch to
point of contact with the
the antenatal class
people attending these classes promoting
healthy eating. the participants also receive
hospitals services.”
and got good advice
a small gift such as nail varnish or mobile
about pain relief. the
phone charms.
special breathing and
Other improvements we have introduced Una O’Brien has won a number of awards
include new materials and educational tools for her work. In November 2008 she was relaxation exercises
for the classes such as updated DVDs, awarded first prize at the RCSI/Our lady of
visual aids and music. a new email address lourdes Hospital ‘excellence in Midwifery
were a great help to
for teenagers and young people to access and Nursing Awards’ for innovation on
me when I had my
the parentcraft department has also been services to Young Mums. In October 2009
created and supplied. she was awarded first prize for the Poster baby Ollie.”
We were assisted by the midwifery and Competition at the All Ireland Cross Border
nursing staff in the Unit and encouraged by
medical and clerical staff.
GPs in the region are encouraged to
recommend the antenatal classes to
the teenagers attending their surgeries.
In addition the Social Work department
worked closely with us to develop an
information pack.
all of the changes implemented have
greatly increased attendance at the classes
which are up 90 per cent on previous years.
I am pleased with all that has been
achieved and happy that we have increased
attendances with innovative thinking. the
classes are educational and I believe the
information provided is helpful and useful
for the teenagers during their pregnancies
and after they give birth.
evaluation of the service is also extremely
important and we have developed a form
to garner feedback from the participants
to assist us in identifying necessary service
changes based on their needs. I am also
planning to invite teenage mums and
their partners back for a reunion to give
feedback about their care so that they can
+ Una O’Brien, staff midwife at Our lady of lourdes Hospital in Drogheda with parents Ellis Briggs and Karl Gaynor
help us to further improve the services. and their baby boy Ollie.
HM Iss6.1 p1-70.indd 29 12/03/2010 15:14:48
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