Thursday 22 December 2016
Consultant Obstetricians have their say on Twitter: #wearedelivering the maternity service
On 12 Dec, the Irish Times published an opinion article entitled “Ireland’s Maternity Services: An Ongoing Horror Story”
In response, 26 female Obstetricians & Gynaecologists came together, writing letters to the Irish Times about the woman-centered care they deliver and defending the maternity services.
At the same time, a campaign began on Twitter to give examples of how #wearedelivering care to mothers and babies in Ireland.
In 10 days, over 1,000,000 impressions have been made on Twitter #wearedelivering
Looking at a snapshot of the tweets from a few days after it began, 200,000 twitter accounts had been reached, with over 500 tweets every day. Users are contributing across Ireland and as far as the United States and Australia.
Approx 90% of contributors are women: they are leading the conversation on the maternity services, how to improve the incredible breadth of services, and tell of women’s experience of the service: both good and bad.
Other hashtags have grown from the discussion, notably #IrishMatExp, #ibirthed and #thankstomyHCPs – the conversation has begun.
We are very supportive of this as conversation: it is what brings about change. Women need to be empowered to speak and be heard: the services should reflect what they need and also what they want.
We at Infant care deeply about mothers and babies. We are working to provide evidence-based research that will bring about change, help mothers in their pregnancies and improve outcomes for all.
#wearedelivering care for women and babies: they are our up-most priority
Our researchers are, and work alongside, the HCP staff in CUMH. #wearedelivering care to mothers and the littlest patients. We are proud of our work and are hugely and sincerely grateful to the mothers and babies we work with.
