Interpreting across the maternity care pathway is one of our biggest areas of work. Over the last 3 years we have provided interpreters in over 50+ languages. SIS Linguists are also routinely accessed by midwives, who ring our emergency line, seeking interpreting support during labour and post-natal discharge.
Recently, we were happy to partner up for a new maternity initiative by University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust www.uhsussex.nhs.uk directed at service users with language needs and targeted to educating parents around labour, birth, breastfeeding, postnatal issues etc.
Peggie Osborne, one of the midwife piloting these new antenatal classes provided some welcome feedback from the first of these sessions facilitated for a group of Arabic speaking mothers.
“Over the last four months, University Sussex Hospitals in Brighton have held alternative language antenatal classes for pregnant women. They have been facilitated by me, Peggy and my colleague Maggie. We are both midwives from the Trust. The classes were run alongside a trained interpreter from SIS. The classes covered topics including labour signals and the birthing process; medical and natural pain relief; medical procedures; new-born care and breastfeeding.
The sessions are much longer than usual antenatal appointments and group work can sometimes be stilted and fragmented but both interpreters were so enthusiastic and engaged, even managing to translate my poor jokes to good effect!
They have been very well received and I have included some feedback below from the women who attended –
“I have learnt a lot.
“Everything was helpful and perfect, and the information is provided in an easy and enjoyable way at the same time.
“You have been up to all my expectations, and you have answered all the questions I needed to be answered.
“I felt that the lessons helped me a lot. Now, I feel happier and more excited to become a mother.”
I have spoken to other Trusts in the UK who do not have access to Interpreting services such as SIS. This has made me realise what a valuable service it is and how fortunate we are in this Trust to be able to have such a rewarding and collaborative relationship.
Thank you SIS and here’s to many more alternative language classes in the future! (Peggy Osborne – Community Midwife)”
The interpreter who attended commented similarly stating:
“I have very much enjoyed the classes/sessions and felt that both Peggy and Maggie made it extremely engaging and informative for the ladies; they made the service users feel at ease, they welcomed all questions no matter how simple the answer might be.
I felt the ladies that attended have all benefited and enjoyed the sessions and that was apparent from their questions and interaction.
Over the years I have attended many antenatal appointments at midwives clinics and at hospital but these sessions that were run by Peggy and Maggie were different – it made me realise how important it is for a pregnant woman to know her options and how daunting it must be for them not knowing the language and giving birth in a different country with different cultures and way of doing things – I personally feel that these sessions were enlightening for these women.” (Arabic speaking Interpreter)
SIS have welcomed being involved and collaborating with the Trust on such an important and valuable new initiative that will benefit many SIS mothers to be.
You can find out more about these additional language antenatal classes (for mothers who are over 24 weeks pregnant) being rolled out by e-mailing peggy.osborne@nhs.net and margaret.myatt2@nhs.net.
