15th September 2023
During Sexual Health Week 2023 (11-17 September), we are delighted to share this Voices blog from Karen Armstrong, Public Health Practitioner, about the recent contraception training programme delivered to health visitors and midwives across the North East and North Cumbria region.
Karen Armstrong, Public Health Practitioner, NHS North East and North Cumbria
Midwives and health visitors work with families in the antenatal and postnatal period and are therefore ideally placed to discuss contraception as part of their role. Health visitors are uniquely placed to work with families in the preconception period and this can make a real difference. A scoping and mapping exercise was carried out to explore the postnatal care provision in maternity and health visiting services across the North East and North Cumbria region, to improve reproductive health, safe pregnancy spacing, and postnatal contraceptive care, as a key deliverable within the North East and North Cumbria Integrated Care System, Public Health Prevention in Maternity programme. The aim of this work was to highlight areas of good practice, identifying gaps in service, and recommendations for improvements. It was clear from this work that there was a gap in professional knowledge and confidence in relation to contraception, highlighting the need and demand for training.
It was important to have an accessible and equitable offer to all women in the North East and North Cumbria, ensuring consistency from a service delivery perspective. Providing health professionals with the confidence and knowledge required to have meaningful conversations with women, in relation to contraception options and methods, would support this aim.
To meet maternity and health visiting workforce demands for contraception training, it was important that the training was accessible, of high-quality and relevant to the role of the midwife and health visitor. To address this, the Public Health Prevention in Maternity Programme commissioned the Institute of Health Visiting to deliver a programme of training on contraception, specifically for midwives and health visitors. The programme has been endorsed by the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health (FSRH) with the objective to increase knowledge and understanding of sexual and reproductive health in the preconceptual, antenatal and postnatal periods. The teaching session included:
- Increasing understanding of sexual and reproductive health
- Raising awareness of the importance of the midwives’ and health visitor’s role in providing advice on contraceptive choices as part of a pathway of care
- Increase midwives’ and health visitor’s confidence to have conversations with families about contraception choices
- Provide practical resources and tools to support making every contact count
The training was accessed by 165 midwives and 136 health visitors between August 2022 and June 2023. The training has been really well received, and the feedback from professionals has been extremely positive, with recognition that the training has been beneficial to their role and enhanced practice, see below feedback received:
” My confidence around talking about contraception has increased. I engage in conversation about contraception in the antenatal period more often.”
” I feel more confident giving contraceptive advice.”
“I now have a better understanding of which contraceptives to recommend to women based on their clinical history.”
“I now feel more able to have meaningful discussions around contraception with women in my care.”
“I feel more confident to advise on pros and cons of differing contraception.”
“I can evidence the advice I give and signpost to appropriate services with confidence.”
We hope that by investing in training the professionals who can support families with contraceptive choices, we can improve access and care across the region.
The iHV hope to build on the learning from the success of the training in the North East and North Cumbria region, to inform future development of the training and to raise awareness nationally. It is essential to raise the importance of upskilling health visitors, midwives, and their teams to support women and their families with their postnatal contraception choices, to improve their sexual and reproductive health.
