Parents of children with Down's syndrome train midwives

Parents of children with Down's syndrome are helping train NHS maternity staff to offer better support.

Dorset charity Downright Perfect was approached by the local NHS trust to hold sessions in Bournemouth and Poole where families could talk about their good and bad experiences.

Emma Cross, the charity's chair of trustees, gave birth to her son JoJo at Poole Hospital five years ago.

Her overall experience was positive, but she regrets not being given time with her baby before a consultant gave her the Down's syndrome diagnosis.

"I hadn't met him, I didn't know who my baby was," she said.

"I'd had a C-section, they'd held him up over the curtain as they do and then whisked him away.

"There was no medical emergency. There was no need for that information to be delivered at that point in time."

Fellow trustee Claire Oakley gave birth to her son Noah at Dorchester four years ago and had him with her when staff gave her and her husband his diagnosis.

"The neonatal nurse specialist picked up Noah, gave him to us and just said, 'he's still your baby boy, he's the same child as he was five minutes ago,'" Ms Oakley said.

"You really look to the health professionals when you get a diagnosis to see how worried you should be.

"Because everyone was so calm, we were so calm and it really did set us up for such a lovely journey to the start of Noah's life."

Kerry Taylor, head of midwifery at University Hospitals Dorset, said feedback they received from parents of children with Down's syndrome prompted the training sessions.

"In the past, despite best intentions, there was definitely an area for improvement with how we supported families," she said.

"We ran two study days last year and of all of the study days that we run here at our maternity and neonatal department it was the most popular session.

"We quite simply didn't have enough places for all of the people who wanted to attend."

The sessions, which also provide guidance on the language that staff use, will now be held annually to make sure all newly qualified midwives have the chance to be trained.

Downright Perfect has produced support packs that are given to new parents by hospital staff in Southampton, Dorchester, Bournemouth and Poole.

And the charity has made some additional visits to meet staff at Poole's maternity unit, including on World Down Syndrome Day.

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