Maternity Direct
Empower Maternity Care & Scale Midwifery Resources
Maternity Direct is the first telehealth app in the UK to connect pregnant women with NHS midwives for text chats on non-urgent queries and then store those chats in the Trust’s electronic record system. Designed to transform maternity care and address challenges faced by midwifery services, Maternity Direct acts as a force multiplier, amplifying maternity resources.
Contact us at maternity@acadiant.com today to discover how Maternity Direct can empower your hospital in boosting midwifery resources.
Seamless Communication and Enhanced Care
Maternity Direct provides a secure and easy-to use platform for pregnant women to connect with experienced midwives, during the long gap between antenatal appointments. Those chats are stored in the Trust’s electronic databases and are available for later legal and medical reference. In addition to secure one-to-one text chats, Maternity Direct provides an interactive Personalised Care Plan, Health Information posts created by the midwives, a Midwife Group Chat for handover and difficult queries, a Library curated by midwives, a full, immutable audit trail, and real-time Data Analytics. All content is under the control of the hospital’s Maternity team and meets Trust’s Information Governance. The hospital supplies the Maternity Direct midwives; Acadiant supplies software and training. Together it’s a powerfully effective system.
Chat between a woman and a midwife. All data is synthetic.
Key Features and Benefits
Boosting Midwifery Resources: Maternity Direct plays a pivotal role in scaling limited NHS midwifery resources. By leveraging the app, a small rota of dedicated midwives handle an average of five asynchronous text chats in the time it would take for a single phone call. This efficient allocation of resources allows other midwives to focus on providing essential face-to-face care.
"I enjoy connecting with and supporting women and their families via Maternity Direct, a digital platform which is easily accessible for all. It's modern and easy to use and enables us to communicate with our service users so they always have a connection with a Midwife at the touch of a button. The team at Acadiant are always happy, friendly and there to support us too :-)"
– Midwife Charlotte at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust
All Live Chats List. Maternity Direct gives a real-time view of chats pending and underway. Please note all data is synthetic.
All Live Chats List. Maternity Direct runs on any device.
Great User Satisfaction: In addition to boosting midwifery resources, women have shown tremendous satisfaction with the service in focus groups and in real usage at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust (MSE) where Maternity Direct has been running since 2019. The digital native-demographic can receive discreet, easy, private, and reassuring support directly on their smartphones, saving time, energy and providing a record of the conversation.
Cost Saving Potential: 80% of women who answered a survey question after their chat—more than 13,000 women—said Maternity Direct saved them from needing to access another healthcare service. MSE modelled what those appointments would have cost (GP, Maternity Assessment Centre, Community Midwife, A&E, et al) and found significant potential cost savings for the Integrated Care System (ICS).
Health Information posts created by midwives are visible on maternitydirect.btuh.nhs.uk
"I really liked Maternity Direct. Whenever I had a query, I could go on and ask questions and get answers more or less straight away. The chat service was amazing as I felt I wasn't wasting a midwife at the hospital’s time, and I often got the reassurance I needed or advice on what to do. Would highly recommend."
– Nicole C., Maternity Direct user
Addressing Healthcare Inequalities: Maternity Direct can help Trusts meet the Core20PLUS5 approach to address healthcare inequalities by offering an effective tool to connect women with midwives without the need for lengthy phone calls or unnecessary visits. We see this at MSE, where the percentage of Black and Asian women who registered to use Maternity Direct was in line with the ethnicity of women who gave birth at the Trust, indicating positive uptake by Black and Asian women of this useful digital tool. Moreover, Acadiant can build “channels” to connect specific patient groups with specialist midwives such as Black women with Black midwives for a more empathetic experience, or women with gestational diabetes with a diabetes specialist midwife.
Real-time Data Analytics: With Maternity Direct's Data Analytics Dashboard, valuable insights into usage patterns, chat outcomes, and key metrics are readily available. Trusts can make informed decisions, identify trends, and drive quality improvement to enhance patient care. The app's scalability allows for the creation of specialised modules to address complex care needs, further enhancing its impact on improving outcomes.
Data Analytics Dashboard with usage, outcomes, demographics, and survey results. Please note all data is synthetic.
Secure Communication and Collaboration: Maternity Direct prioritizes secure communication, ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of women's interactions with midwives. All chats have a full audit trail and are stored within the Trust's firewalls. Midwives can collaborate effectively through a Midwife Group Chat, enabling them to address complex questions and facilitate seamless handovers. Quality Assurance measures, such as differing levels of empowerment, ensure proper training and supervision for midwives.
Midwife Group Chat for discussion and handover. All data is synthetic.
Recognition and Success
Maternity Direct was awarded "Highly Commended" for Workforce Innovation at the HSJ Partnership Awards 2021 in recognition of its impact on scaling midwifery resources.
Under Your Trust's Control
Maternity Direct is under the complete control of the Trust, ensuring compliance and data security. The app is downloaded directly from the hospital’s website and works on any computer device with internet access—smartphone, tablet, laptop.
Find Maternity Direct on the G-Cloud Digital Marketplace for easy, compliant procurement by NHS Trusts. Acadiant welcomes discussions on alternative deployment options for ICS-wide implementations and for private healthcare organisations in the UK and abroad.
Experience the future of maternity care with Maternity Direct. Contact us today to learn more about how this innovative telehealth app can help you boost midwifery resources and reach pregnant women for secure, reliable guidance.
Maternity Direct in Action
How to Download Maternity Direct onto Your Phone