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Throughout our own experiences over the last twelve years and our work across Maternity & Neonatal care, we consistently see a lack of understanding for our community.

Our experiences are often not understood, there's a lack of representation, and there is in most cases "no space for us", no "tick box". We are consistently 'Othered', having to write our lives, our trauma and our experiences in the margins between pages, because there is no space for us.

This then in turn, meant that people in our community had to often put themselves at risk, coming out at every appointment, & having to explain their identities, families pathways, and family units to professionals who sadly had not been given the training or the tools to support us. This can lead to erasure, discrimination, confusion, further trauma & impact peoples experiences and leave them feeling unsafe in a system built to support them.
We wanted to change that.
We wanted to create a tool that meant all LGBTQ+ people could navigate the maternity & neonatal system SAFELY. To not have to explain themselves at every turn, and provide in detail, the information required to ensure they recieved personalised & safe care based on their needs.

So we created the "Proud Foundations Maternity Notes".

This is a document that you can print out and fill in to give to your Midwives and other healthcare professionals to support you.

It will mean you don't always have to explain, feel safer, and can concentrate on celebrating your journey, and enjoying your path to parenthood and some of those awkward questions will be answered, and confused conversations will be dispelled.

You can give copies to your Midwife, carry it with your maternity notes (if you have manual handheld notes) and any partner(s), co-parents, or birth partners you have can also have a copy.

We have purposely created two different versions. One is colourful, displays our flag, and the other is plain. We're aware that many people feel unsafe sharing that they are from the community so visually, and for those families, they can have the plain copy.

We hope that this document will support our community to be able to access safer and personalised care and celebrate and enjoy their journeys the way they should.

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Throughout our own experiences over the last twelve years and our work across Maternity & Neonatal care, we consistently see a lack of understanding for our community. Our experiences are often not understood, there's a lack of representation, and there is in most cases "no space for us", no "tick box".

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East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals' Charity

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We support our fantastic teams who give exceptional care to women

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Information for Fathers and Partners – East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

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Useful information for dads and partners who are expecting to welcome a newborn baby.

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Birth choices – East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

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Information about birth choices at East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust, including informed choice, personalised care and care outside of guidance.

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We invite you to participate in our Maternity Experience Survey. Your feedback is vital to help us improve our maternity services for families in our community. The survey is confidential and should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. Your insights and suggestions are greatly appreciated and will help us enhance care for everyone. Thank you for your time and support!

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Lister Maternity & Neonatal Voices Partnership Maternity Experience Survey

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15 Steps Lister Bancroft Clinic November 2025

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15 Steps Lister Bancroft Clinic November 2025

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Fifteen Steps for Lister Maternity November 2025

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Sources of information and support to aid you in your infant feeding journey

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Learn more about the Lister Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit with an overview of our services.

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Welcome to the Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit, we hope that your time in our care will be as happy and as comfortable as possible.

The Lister's Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit opened in October 2011 and sees over 5,500 babies born every year. Our aim is to assist you to have a safe pregnancy and a healthy happy baby.

Early bird referral

Organising your pregnancy care early has benefits for you and your baby. To do this, please visit our early bird referral page and complete the online form. Once we receive this form we will send you your appointment to see a midwife within 10 working days.

Screening leaflet

Before you come to your first appointment, it is important that you read the screening leaflet as this contains information about screening tests which are available to you during your pregnancy. The midwife will discuss this further when you come for your first appointment.

Your antenatal care

In this part of our website, we've provided you with the following information:

Antenatal care

Health and wellbeing in pregnancy

Birth choices

Community midwives

Events and tours

Antenatal classes

Labour and birth

As you prepare for your labour and the birth of your baby, we've brought together a range of information that we hope you'll find helpful:

About labour

Preparation for labour

Encouraging labour over 37 weeks

When to come into hospital

Breast feeding

Birth afterthoughts

Our facilities

In considering the facilities we have to offer here in the Lister's Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit, these pages have been set up to help you understand them:

Staying in hospital

Midwife-led unit

Consultant-led unit

Gloucester ward

Dacre ward

Amenity rooms

Day assessment unit/triage

Specialist services

Specialist services

Here at the Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit, our team provides some specialist services for pregnant women and their babies:

Fetal medicine

Neonatal care

Multiple pregnancy service

Enhanced maternity services

Our enhanced maternity service

Welcome to the Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage. We are proud to offer women and their families a range of enhanced maternity services, delivered by our experienced and compassionate midwives. The services we provide are in addition to those everyone is offered through the NHS.

Our services

Scans

Hypnobirthing

Active birth workshop

Post-date complementary therapy clinic

Non-invasive prenatal testing

You can choose to have your baby at home, in our midwife-led unit, or in the consultant-led unit that provides care for women with more complicated pregnancies.

Currently we have five birthing pools in the maternity unit that may be used for labour and/or birth, including one in our consultant-led unit.

Private scans
Private ultrasound scans for reassurance:
We run a Tuesday evening clinic from 5.30-7.30pm which is staffed by our sonographers to offer scans from 6 weeks to term, to supplement your NHS scans. These scans can be tailored to suit your individual requirements, whether that be reassurance about the health of the pregnancy, your baby's growth or an opportunity to see baby again, using the same standards and protocols adhered to at routine scans.
Pricing list:
2D scans: £80

4D scans: £100 (24- 32 weeks)

You can book these through the private patients' department via:

01438 288036 or 01438 286646

or by emailing privatepatients.enh-tr1@nhs.net

Covid-19 guidelines

Following easing of restrictions, Lister Hospital has returned to pre-pandemic support levels for women and people in our care. The following is now in place:

Two named birthing partners are able to attend throughout the birthing process once in established labour or in a private area onour consultant-led unit (CLU) and midwife-led unit (MLU).

Women can be accompanied by one nominated birth partner when admitted to the Dacre ward at Lister Hospital's Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit for an elective caesarean section, or when admitted for induction of labour up until 9pm in the evening.

One named adult support partner can attend all other assessments, scans or prenatal appointments. (Where required partners may be requested to wait in alternative wait areas until called through.)

Women can be joined on the antenatal (Dacre) ward between 9am and 9pm, and postnatal (Gloucester) ward between 10am and 8pm at Lister Hospital's Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit by one nominated birth partner.

No one else, including children, are able to attend at any time, until further notice.

Unfortunately we cannot offer overnight stays for birth partners (between 9pm and 9am) as our inpatient facilities are not suitable for this. This is a permanent situation and is not related to Covid-19.

You can read more information on our Covid-19 maternity restrictions page which explains in what settings your nominated partner can attend.

You can also find out more about our Covid-19 maternity restrictions by reading our frequently asked questions page. You may need to refresh the page to see the latest information.

If you have read these, but have further questions which haven't been answered - please contact your community midwife.

Feedback

We have had positive feedback from mothers using the services, including from one mother:

"From the moment I was admitted until the time that my baby and I were discharged, the staff at Lister hospital were absolutely amazing. The midwives that assisted me in particular were wonderful, professional and extremely supportive."

If you would like to give birth at the Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit or would like some help to choose where to give birth, take a look at our virtual tour. You can also book directly with us by using the online early Bird Referral booking form.

The Ockenden review

We understand that you may have concerns following the publication of the review of hospital services at Shrewsbury and Telford (known as the Ockenden review). However, please be assured we are committed to providing safe birthing services, regardless of where you birth your baby.

Our Trust is part of the Hertfordshire and West Essex Local Maternity and Neonatal System which continues to review, improve and expand on current services and practices.

We continue to review activity levels daily to ensure safe staffing levels, as the safety of you and your baby remains our top priority.

Our chief nurse, director of maternity and a representative from the Lister Maternity Voices Partnership have been speaking about what this means in the YouTube video below.

If you wish to provide feedback, please contact our Patient Advice Liaison Service (details can be found on the maternity contacts page of this website) or the Lister Maternity Voices Partnership.

If you have any individual questions regarding your care, please speak with your midwife or maternity team.

Maternity and perinatal audit

The Trust is taking part in the National Maternity and Perinatal Audit (NMPA). The aim of the NMPA is to study how mothers and babies are cared for in maternity units across England, Scotland and Wales. It will make it easier for units to monitor the care they provide. The audit will include information about all mothers who have a baby after 1 April 2014.

Visit www.maternityaudit.org.uk for more information.

National safety thermometer audit programme

The hospital and community midwifery teams participate in the national safety thermometer audit programme. This is a snapshot audit carried out on one day each month looking at harms within maternity care. This data helps us to continually review and improve our services. Click here to view our maternity safety thermometer data.

Lister Maternity Voices Partnership

The Lister Maternity Voices Partnership group listen to, and seek out, the voices of women, families and carers using maternity services, enabling people from diverse communities to have a voice. The group includes a combination of service users, hospital staff, commissioning groups, GPs and volunteers and they hold regular meetings locally. Visit the Lister Maternity Voices Facebook page to find out more.

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Maternity unit - East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust

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Welcome to the Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit, we hope that your time in our care will be as happy and as comfortable as possible. The Lister's Diamond Jubilee Maternity Unit opened in October 2011 and sees over 5,500 babies born every year. Our aim is to assist you to have a safe pregnancy and a healthy happy baby.

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We’re proud to launch our brand-new awareness video!

The Lister Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP) works closely with East and North Hertfordshire NHS Teaching Trust to ensure that the experiences and feedback of women, birthing people, and their families are at the heart of decision making. By doing so, we aim to improve the quality, safety and accessibility of local maternity and neonatal services across East and North Hertfordshire.

“It’s essential that the people using maternity and neonatal services every day get a chance to help shape the service to make real improvements. We are here to listen to all feedback from all voices and every family.”

– Toni Amos, MNVP Maternity Lead

Our new video aims to inform the community about what the MNVP strives to achieve and highlights how families’ experiences, ideas, and feedback are helping us make maternity and neonatal care the best it can be.

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NHS Herts and West Essex Integrated Care Board

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Lister Stevenage Maternity Neonatal Voices Partnership (MNVP)

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Perinatal Pelvic Health Service Referral

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Perinatal Pelvic Health Service Referral

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Supporting You Through Pregnancy and Beyond

Did you know that pelvic health problems can affect anyone during or after pregnancy?

You’re not alone — and support is available.

The Perinatal Pelvic Health Service (PPHS) at East and North Hertfordshire Teaching NHS Trust offers help for:

Accidental bladder or bowel leakage (incontinence)

Pelvic organ prolapse (bulging, dragging or swelling)

Birth Injuries in the area between the vagina and anus.

The service provides early access to specialist physiotherapy and personalised support, helping you feel confident and comfortable again.

Who can access the service?

Anyone booked to receive labour care at Lister Hospital, or who has given birth through East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust community services (including home births), can self-refer at any stage of pregnancy or up to 12 months after birth.

How to self-refer:

Call: 07436 028437

Email: enh-tr.perinatalpelvichealthservice@nhs.net

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Perinatal Pelvic Health Service Referral

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You are about to complete a referral to the Perinatal Pelvic Health Service (PPHS).The PPHS accept referrals for the following pelvic health problems; leaking of urine (pee) and/or stool (poo), pelvic organ prolapse (bulging, dragging or swelling) or birth injuries in the area between the vagina and anus.Please only complete this form if you are booked to give birth at, or received your labour care from, East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust (Lister Hospital/Home birth).Please complete all sections of this referral form to the best of your ability. This will ensure it is triaged correctly by a member of the team, and your care is arranged correctly for your pelvic health concern.

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For hands-on help, the Infant Feeding Team also run free drop-in sessions and clinics across Stevenage, Hitchin, Welwyn Garden City, Letchworth, Buntingford, Royston, Little Hadham, and Hertford.

These sessions are a safe space to ask questions, get support with positioning, latchingand meet other parents on the same journey.

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East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals' Charity

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We raise funds to support our wonderful NHS teams give exceptional care to children.

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We invite you to participate in our Neonatal Experience Survey. Your feedback is vital to help us improve our maternity services for families in our community. The survey is confidential and should take around 10-15 minutes to complete. Your insights and suggestions are greatly appreciated and will help us enhance care for everyone. Thank you for your time and support!

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Lister Maternity & Neonatal Voices Partnership Maternity Experience Survey