Healthwatch Dorset spoke to over 100 local women and their families about local maternity services, to find out what it's really like when you have a baby in Dorset. We organised two "Mini Moments" events for parents and children, ran a Facebook survey and visited local community groups and children's centres to get people's feedback. 

We have put our findings into a new report, called Baby Steps. It shows the need for better communication, continuity of care and the need to allow new parents the support to make their own choices. We believe this is even more important when talking about people who may have stronger preferences due to disability, religion, or culture.

Joyce Guest, Chair of Healthwatch Dorset, explains: "Our project was about listening to people who don't always have the loudest voice. We're delighted that the Dorset Local Maternity System has accepted all of the recommendations in our report and we look forward to seeing the actions they take in response, to make maternity services across Dorset even better."

To find out more, and to download both our report and the response to it from the Dorset Local Maternity System, click here.

Healthwatch Dorset is the local, independent watchdog for health and social care in Dorset. 

Tell us your experiences of health and social care services in the county.  We want to hear both the good and the bad. We will tell services about your experiences of health and care. We'll tell them what you think is good. But we'll also tell them what you think needs improving, and how they could do it. We can also provide information to help you find your way round the health and social care system and understand what to do when things go wrong.

Use the Speak Out button above to tell us your experiences.

Click on the picture to the left to watch a short video about who we are and what we do.
You can also watch our other videos on our YouTube channel here.