Unheard and Unsaid

Research & Insights

This has had a cascading effect on the maternity experiences of mothers. Over 30,000 women report negative maternity care experiences, with first-time, non-UK born mothers facing additional challenges like language barriers, overwhelming information, and dismissed concerns due to changing midwives. This makes them feel more isolated and less in control of their pregnancy journeys. Given that 30% of all births in the UK in 2023 were from Non - UK born mothers, a number which is expected to continue rising, we identified that building a solution for them would enable better care practices to be implemented for the future of the Maternity Sector. 

Our core insights from research with First time Non - UK born mothers that drove our solution direction were:

• Mothers are new to the system and find it difficult to assess what choices to make due to overwhelming and generalized information.
• Mothers desire the opinions of their midwives to feel reassured, but often due to short appointment times they are not able to discuss their concerns which leaves them feeling anxious.
• Adding to that, having different midwives at each appointment leaves no time to build a bond to notice and address the unique needs of mothers leading to them feeling unrecognized.
• Outside of consultation times, connecting with Midwives is difficult which leads to mothers receiving delayed or no response at all for their general queries.

Service concept

We introduce ‘Stork’, a two-pronged service offering personalized support for pregnant individuals.

Stork Chat: A WhatsApp-based tool, free from NHS and available in multiple languages, providing timely, reliable information on care choices and birth preferences. It enhances decision-making by sending nudges, answering queries, and creating reports for personal awareness, enabling users to advocate for their needs confidently during appointment sessions.

Stork Central: A dashboard for midwifery units, that improves visibility of patient concerns and integrates with digital records to highlight unique care needs. It fosters better relationships with the midwifery teams and includes a broadcast feature to help them share information promptly, reducing time spent in managing repetitive queries.

Using NHS-verified data and anonymized chat data, Stork addresses patient needs, informs local maternity voice partnerships, and ensures culturally appropriate, efficient resource allocation. Stork leads to safer, supported, and informed pregnancy experiences.

TRANSFORMATION

Stork can enable mothers to be informed and aware of their care choices, giving them confidence to contribute to their care journey.

Stork can help Midwifery units reduce their workload by using the Stork dashboard to recognise unique care needs and organize themselves accordingly.

Additionally,  through service mapping and user testing we learned that Stork can be beneficial to the Healthcare sector beyond just the Midwifery units. The improved visibility with Stork can help communication teams develop personalized content for diverse patients, it can help leadership allocate resources to populations that most require them. By doing so,  it can support in improving patient satisfaction thus leading to a renewed trust in the system.

REFLECTION

• Our project engaged first-time and non-UK-born expectant mothers, NHS midwives, healthcare design experts, and service designers, providing a holistic perspective. Designing from a service designer’s lens, we focused on the entire system rather than a single stakeholder to ensure sustainable interventions.
• Intersectionality was crucial, addressing overlapping challenges faced by non-UK-born mothers, resulting in a tool that is equitable and responsive to their needs. This comprehensive approach led to a robust and supportive system, enhancing the project's effectiveness. By designing for an excluded group, we create solutions that benefit everyone.
• Implementing a technological solution within the Maternity sector will take time as currently only 60% of Midwifery units use digital records, having a lack of funding and the risk of overworking the staff due to added training are barriers that can play a role. Implementing this solution in phases could overcome some of them.
• Stork uses conversational AI to share resources with mothers and record concerns for midwives. By providing mothers the option to control what they share and abiding by the GDPR we can ensure our solution is designed carefully, responsibly, and ethically.

We envision Stork as a tool that can be useful for mothers beyond pregnancy, offering information for child care and enabling partners to support and engage in the pregnancy journey actively.