Wellbeing Wallets for Shrewsbury & Doncaster

MAMA Academy are thrilled to announce their MAMA Wellbeing Wallets are now being distributed to all pregnant women at another 2 UK NHS Trusts – Shrewsbury & Telford and Doncaster & Bassetlaw thanks to generous funding from the charity, Teddy’s Wish.

Our MAMA Wellbeing Wallets act as a means of relaying essential health messages to expectant mothers which they will carry with them at all times, and we are now in a position to provide another 10,000 wallets free of charge thanks to the donation from baby loss charity, Teddy’s Wish.

The wallets are robust plastic zip-lock pouches in which pregnant women keep their handheld antenatal notes in which they regularly read as their pregnancy progresses. The wallets ensure the notes are kept protected, but they are also printed with important advice regarding the mother’s health, and that of her baby. This ensures that key messages such as monitoring babies’ movements become second nature to the woman as she carries the wallet with her.

The information contained on the wallets complements the work of the NHS ‘Saving Babies’ Lives’ stillbirth care bundle and is in line with safer pregnancy messaging by the Department of Health and Sands. The wallets are also supported by The Royal College of Midwives.

An initial pilot funded by NHS England, saw 80,000 Wellbeing Wallets distributed within 15 NHS Trusts across the country. Nearly all of the trusts reported a significant decrease in stillbirth rates whist the wallets were in use. Midwives noticed that women regularly read the information printed on their wallet whilst waiting for appointments and they made women act on concerns rather than ignore them, citing three cases where, acting on the information had undoubtedly saved babies lives.

Feedback from St.Helens and Knowsley included:

“One mum who self-referred to hospital with fetal movement concerns had an immediate emergency c-section due to an abnormal CTG, reported that she had rung because she had been promoted by the message on her wallet . She felt she may not have done so if she didn’t have the constant reminder in front of her.”
“A young Mum who had a vaginal bleed at 36 weeks rang and advised a Midwife that “the wallet said to call you immediately if I have a bleed, so I am” History was taken and mum advised to attend immediately. On arrival continued to bleed and emergency C-Section performed. Baby in good condition at birth.”

MAMA Academy Chief Executive, Heidi Eldridge, has been delighted with the positive feedback already received. She said: “The UK has one of the highest stillbirth rates in the developed world and all maternity providers should be working to reduce this. We are thrilled to be able to continue to provide more mothers with a means to give more babies the best chance of arriving safely thanks to the continuous support from Teddy’s Wish.”

“Teddy’s Wish are thrilled to be continuing our partnership with the MAMA Academy” said Jennifer Reid, Co Founder of Teddy’s Wish. “The loss of any child is a tragedy and we are dedicated to substantially reducing baby loss in the UK. The MAMA Academy Wellbeing Wallet is a simple yet effective way of communicating the most important messages in pregnancy to mothers and midwives alike and have already proven to save babies lives. We believe the wallets have the potential to have a dramatic impact on reducing stillbirth in the UK”.

The wallets are typically given to mothers at the first booking appointment and are currently being distributed in over half of NHS Trusts nationwide thanks to donations from organisations like Teddy’s Wish and many trusts purchasing their own.

For more information, please visit the MAMA Academy Wellbeing Wallet page or order yours today from our online shop.

Our sincerest thanks:

We would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Teddy’s Wish as their continuous, generous support has now led us to provide 46,000 wallets in 10 Trusts across the country over the past 2 years to help save babies lives and we couldn’t be more grateful.