Personalised Midwifery Project
October 2015 to March 2024
The Personalised Midwifery Project provided women and their families with personalised, continuous care before, during and after the birth of their baby.
It supported them in planning and making informed choices around the birth. It also offered enhanced care to help promote key health messages around breastfeeding, smoking cessation and nutrition.
The project was delivered by Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust from 2015 to 2024. Following a pilot phase, the service was provided by the Clover Team – a Continuity of Care midwifery team based at St Luke’s Hospital.
How the project was delivered
The service differed from the way midwife services are normally provided by ensuring one dedicated midwife, alongside another midwife as a ‘buddy’, was allocated to support each woman during pregnancy, the birth, and afterwards. When women went into labour, the team aimed to provide a midwife she knew for the birth.
The service provided longer antenatal appointments and a home visit at booking, allowing the woman and her midwife to establish a relationship and have more time for discussing choices around pregnancy and birth. To enable this, midwives had smaller caseloads than standard care, allowing them to personalise care to each family’s needs.
A Maternity Support Worker (MSW) held additional sessions for Antenatal Plus and Postnatal sessions. At these sessions the MSW shared public health messaging around smoking cessation, safe sleeping and baby weight.
Background, impact and findings
Further reading
Download this snapshot of the Personalised Midwifery Project, with headline stats, background, impact and learning (PDF).
In this webinar, the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub and Better Start Bradford, explore evaluation findings relating to the Little Minds Matter, Baby Steps, Incredible Years and Personalised Midwifery projects
Embedding a Maternity Support Worker (MSW) within our Personalised Midwifery Project enhanced and aided the delivery. This research poster was presented at the annual Unicef Baby Friendly Initiative Conference 2023 (PDF)
Sophie Eveleigh, Contract and Implementation Officer at Better Start Bradford, looks at how the organisation has improved midwifery support in parts of the city.
Dr Rachael Moss and Kathryn Willan from Born in Bradford, discuss a study on whether the midwife-led continuity of carer model improves birth outcomes and maternal mental health in vulnerable women
How Better Start Bradford is leading the way in developing a continuity of carer model in Bradford.
We were thrilled when we learned that two of our projects have been working together and supporting an isolated single mum through her birth journey, creating a continuity of carer that she had not had previously.
At 7 weeks' pregnant, Mrs Bashir attended her first Personalised Midwifery Team appointment. She expected it to be a rushed, form filling, non-personal experience, but couldn't have been more wrong.
Steph has been a midwife for the last 4 years and has worked with our Personalised Midwifery Care Pilot for the past year. She took some time out of her busy schedule to share with us one of her typical working week.
Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) is an evidence-based, preventative programme for first-time parents. It was delivered as part of the Better Start Bradford programme from 2016 to 2019.
Acting as a ‘professional friend’, volunteer doulas helped pregnant women and birthing people navigate their pregnancy journey and make positive choices as part of the Better Start Bradford programme from 2017 to 2024.
From 2015 to 2025 we delivered over 20 evidence-led projects and services for expectant families and families with children aged 0-3 in Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton. What did we find out?