I have the priviledge of being involved with a 6 month project to virtualise maternity services at a local hospital. It is very exciting to be part of what could potentially revolutionise how we provide maternity care. Maternity care is about wellness, not illness and as such, how much of the care we provide could be offered online? (Online booking in registration & clinical information, education, virtual tours, question and answer opportunities, virtual community chat rooms) Could we improve some of that isolation that new mum's experience with online chat session with the opportunity to ask questions, moderated by a midwife or child health nurse.
While we will never replace face to face maternity care and the relationship that is built up with these encounters, we need to think differently about how to provide services that can be done off site (in the virtual world) to an increasing number of pregnant women and their famiies with no increase in funding and resources.
Well the Virtual Matenrity Care project has finally gone live with the successful launch of the new Cabooture maternity website. We have achieved the first online registration for public maternity clients in QLD with the first women booking online at 7.30am on the 1st day. We are receiving approximately 10 new registrations a day.
ReplyDeleteOnline maternity care aims to enhance & redesign how we provide maternity services & I am currently developing a research proposal to design a best practice model to engage maternity clients through social media so watch this space.
We sit on the cusp of a very exciting time in maternity services and may very well be creating new roles for midwives that do not currently exist - the e-midwife.
Women want immediate access to quality information from maternity health professionals within the place they will birth their babies.