Our baby is growing! Since its conception back in June, the Whose Shoes? #MatExp project is finding its feet and even kicking a bit. In a good way, of course!
We are also posting information about this project – and the type of improvements we are hoping to achieve, working in partnership with women and families, on our crowd-sourced #MatExp Pinterest board.
I have so far told the story of how the project came about, leading up to our first workshop at Kingston Hospital – and published a Steller (visual) story.
Our #MatExp team. Or at least some of us – as the whole approach involves constantly drawing in new people, listening to their ideas and working TOGETHER for positive change!
We ran the second of the initial series of five pilot workshops at Lewisham Hospital on 21 November and were delighted that Diane Menage, a midwife from the Midlands with a special interest in compassion in maternity services, a.k.a @Dianethemidwife came down and wrote this great blog about her experience of it.
Diane had just come back from the ‘Compassion in Healthcare Conference’ in San Francisco.
She had been telling everyone about Whose Shoes? and our project, including Roman Krznaric, a world leader on Empathy!
@WhoseShoes He is a world expert in Empathy. Talked about putting self in another's shoes. Told him all about you+WS http://t.co/CxjRLtctQa—
Diane Menage (@Dianethemidwife) November 15, 2014
Our work was also showcased at the Royal College of Midwives conference.
https://twitter.com/Midwifesupastar/status/532479747998384128
So how did we pass the baton from Kingston Hospital to Lewisham and Greenwich – and where do we go from here?
Key factors were the firm foundations and attention to detail established in Kingston. The NHS England team had produced a ‘Hospital pack’ outlining the essentials of running a successful workshop (which, unofficially at least, now includes a cakes #Bakeoff!).
Florence Wilcock then used the experience and feedback from the first pilot to initiate some great leadership notes to ‘bring the sessions alive’.
This is such a key part of how Whose Shoes? works – creating energy and local ownership as well as a ‘process’.
We are all constantly talking to people to unearth the key themes and topics – for example interesting conversations around…
Maternal depression and possible links to housing
Homebirth
And to bring in as many perspectives as possible and tap into the rich experience within the wider maternity experience community
Florence was busy until the last moment drumming up support before finally handing the baton to the Lewisham team.
It is very important to involve Dads, including young Dads!
There was also plenty of social media hype with regular countdown style updates, meaning that the Lewisham event was oversubscribed!
And very pleasing indeed to see that fab Helen Knower – who was leading the Lewisham workshop and had totally refused to join Twitter… joined Twitter and got a lovely reception. Well done, Helen!
The community is growing (Anyone on Twitter interested in maternity, follow these people!)
And the Lewisham #Bakeoff was in full flow at midnight…
And lots of other creativity…
A lovely poem from Florence’s Mum…
Our first song…
And a film or two!
And sharing personal stories
The Lewisham workshop deserves its own blog as there were so many fab tweets, photos and ideas generated, captured through Anna Geyer’s wonderful graphic recording.
Suffice to say that the session went really well. It felt very action-focused, fuelled by the way Florence has been following up the conversations and pledges from the Kingston workshop so that everyone is very clear that this project is about real change and not just interesting discussions.
There is loads of really great work going on already; this project aims to make it even better – and a lot more consistent!
We are proud to be building a change management platform!
We have a great team of passionate people and it is brilliant to see them getting some recognition for their dedication and commitment to improving maternity experience.
The next workshop is on 16th December, closely followed by our #MatExp webinar on 17th December. Join us – we are looking forward to sharing the learning and outcomes so far!
Please post comments about any topics that you think we should be including or tell us how you would like to be involved. It seems that everyone has a birth story!
Whose Shoes? A catalyst for change in health and social care 
Pingback: What does it take to build a change platform? A year ago I had no idea. #MatExp | Whose Shoes? A catalyst for change in health and social care
Pingback: Birthday bonanza – #MatExp was born one year ago today! :) Florence Wilcock gets nostalgic… | Whose Shoes? A catalyst for change in health and social care
Pingback: In the Running Shoes of Jacque Gerrard… | RCM Director, England | Whose Shoes? A catalyst for change in health and social care