PARAMEDICS are spending time in the area's maternity unit to ensure all women receive first-rate care wherever they give birth.
Ambulance crews are sometimes called to the aid of a woman in labour who is expected to give birth imminently. Now, a new partnership is allowing North West Ambulance Service paramedics to learn the latest birthing techniques from midwives at Furness General Hospital in a bid to make emergency 999 deliveries as safe as possible.
Sascha Wells, director of maternity at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, said the skill-sharing scheme was working well.
Mrs Wells said: "As part of their formal training, all newly qualified paramedics receive basic training on how to deliver a baby, but some of the more experienced paramedics, who perhaps qualified a few years ago, may not have seen a birth or helped deliver a baby for some time.
"The aim of the observation shifts is to help equip paramedics with the up-to-date knowledge and skills needed to effectively and safely deliver a new-born when the situation arises.
"We worked closely with our workforce team to arrange these informal observations so the paramedics can come into the maternity unit in Lancaster or Barrow and observe alongside an experienced midwife.
If there are no births at the hospital while a paramedic is on site, midwives go through a number of birth scenarios to pass on their expertise.
Mel Gard, service user representative and chairman of the maternity services liaison committee, welcomed the scheme.
She said: "A birthing woman in the back of an ambulance is a very different scenario to one that ambulance crews will see on a daily basis as this scenario happens surprisingly infrequently.
"The committee has been working closely with NWAS to raise awareness among their crew members of what a woman’s emotional and comfort needs are, to make sure that she feels cared for and safe in the back of an ambulance.
"I’m very heartened that NWAS crews are giving up their own time to develop their knowledge, skills and confidence and I feel these observational shifts will make a real difference to women's experience of care in pregnancy."
NWAS senior paramedic Andy Blake said: "The arrangement with UHMBT is an informal one which the paramedics do in their own time on a voluntary basis to allow them to spend time on a maternity unit.
"Another added bonus of us working alongside the UHMBT midwives is that we get to know them better too. Building those networks are really important to us all."
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