Essex pregnancy app has helped over 5,000 mums
Over 5,000 users have used Maternity Direct, an app available for pregnant women with non-urgent queries to remotely chat to midwives. It has proved especially helpful during COVID.
It is available for all pregnant women and new mums who have registered their pregnancy at Basildon, Southend and Broomfield Hospitals which form the Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSE).
The app accesses up-to-date evidence based health information and allows the users personalised care plan to be stored in an interactive platform, allowing her to build this in partnership with her midwife.
Feedback from women currently using this service is really positive with new mum, Katherine Waumsley, from Basildon, praising the app as it helped provide reassurance during the pandemic.
Katherine said: “Maternity Direct is a great app for mums who are anxious during this uncertain time.
“I was able to ask what I considered to be ‘silly questions’ to a midwife without feeling like I was bothering anyone, and I always received a response quickly - it was very reassuring.
“The app was recommended to me by my community midwife during my pregnancy. I now have a four-week-old baby boy, William, and I’m grateful to the midwives behind the app, as I was always given detailed information – which was much more reliable that searching on the internet.”
Katherine also explained her community midwife was very supportive throughout the duration of her pregnancy, but due to Covid was unable to be available all the time. As a first time anxious mum, the app provided additional support so she always felt there was someone available to help if needed.
Developed by midwives from Basildon Hospital in partnership with women via the Maternity Voices Partnership and software developer Acadiant Limited, the Maternity Direct app was launched last August.