Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate

If during your maternity or neonatal care in North East London you have experienced an adverse outcome you can go to a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate for support.

The MNISA might be able to support you if you have experienced any of the following: 

• Your baby has died before they were born after 24 weeks of your pregnancy. 
• You had an unexpected or unplanned removal of your womb (within 6 weeks of giving birth).
• Your baby has died with 28 days of being born.
• The baby’s mother has died.
• You had an unexpected admission to the critical or intensive care unit.
• Your baby was diagnosed with a brain injury or a brain injury was suspected.

We are very sorry if you have experienced any of these outcomes. Your advocate is here for you and your family, and can:

• help and support you and your family to be listened to and heard by your maternity and neonatal care providers. 
• attend meetings with you.
• support you through the maternity and neonatal healthcare system to help you find understand what happened in your care.
• support you through investigation and complaints processes.

You do not need to be sure if there were mistakes or negligence in the mother or baby’s care to ask for support. If the advocate is not best placed to support you as part of their role, they will signpost you to other support services available.

A Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate may not be best placed to help you if: 

• all your avenues of investigation or complaint have been concluded
• your concerns are solely about your birth choices rather than from an adverse outcome
• you have any general queries related to maternity and neonatal services

Contacting or using a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate is free. There is no charge for any support given, and interpreters can be made available if you need one.

You can contact a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate by calling, emailing or writing to them. You can download the form below and send to the email address above or you can submit your details directly using the Microsoft Forms link below.  (All forms/emails are sent via a secure NHS.NET account and are not processed by this Healthwatch Redbridge website)

You can also ask a member of staff from your hospital Trust or Integrated Care Board to get the Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate to contact you.

You don’t have to use a Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate if you do not want to, and you can stop contact at any time without giving a reason.

• A Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate is independent from the trust that provided your care. They report to the local Integrated Care Board, which is responsible for the provision of all care in your area and to Healthwatch Redbridge 
• Everything you say to your Maternity and Neonatal Independent Senior Advocate is confidential unless you ask or agree with them to share it with others. The only exception to this is if they have a safeguarding concern about you, or your family’s welfare or if there is an overriding public interest.