Enhancing access to maternity care using Wellbeing Pods in community libraries

Start date: 1 Jan 2024
End date: 1 Dec 2025
Funder: University of Leeds, Impact Acceleration Account Fund
Partners and collaborators: Leeds Health and Care Partnership, NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board, Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust, Leeds Libraries
Primary investigator: Dr Camilla Nykjaer
Co-investigators: Dr Jinan Rabbee
External co-investigators: Professor Linda McGowan (Faculty of Medicine and Health)

Project title

Description

Wellbeing Pods are being used in some libraries in Leeds to deliver maternity services, such as support for mental health and stopping smoking.

The use of a friendly non-stigmatised environment of a local library has the potential to reach a wide range of people, including those who may be uncomfortable in clinical spaces.

In addition, pods have been set up in some of the most deprived areas of Leeds with the hopes of increasing the uptake into maternity care by using accessible spaces in the heart of the local community.

This is key, as in Leeds there is an increasing proportion of people living in deprived areas (1 in 4 adults and 1 in 3 children) and for expectant parents from deprived areas, the risk of their baby being born stillborn increases ten-fold compared to those living in more affluent areas.

Research aims

The aim of the research is to investigate stakeholders’ and beneficiaries’ experiences using the pods, and whether access to services have been maximised.

This will unlock delivery and commissioning of this setting for care delivery going forward.

Research overview

Research activities include:

Scoping review

To map current literature on healthcare delivery via community hubs/libraries and identify key thematic areas. This will allow for a comparative analysis with project findings and identify links between them to propose future priorities for research and best practice.

Participant recruitment

Key stakeholders and beneficiaries of the pods (e.g. pregnant women, new mothers, midwives, health visitors) will be recruited via study advertisement and word of mouth in the eight community libraries. In line with previous qualitative research, we expect to include 15-20 participants from each of the two groups (stakeholder and beneficiaries) to allow for a meaningful thematic analysis.

Data collection

Quantitative data will be collected via an online survey, and will include sociodemographic questions, and assess participants’ experiences using the pods. Participants will be invited to online interviews (stakeholders) or focus groups (beneficiaries – translator available), which will allow for a deeper understanding of the use of the pods, including acceptability, demand and practicality.

Data analysis

A reflexive thematic analysis informed by Braun & Clarke (2022) will be done on the qualitative data from focus groups/interviews. The statistical software SPSS will be used for quantitative data analysis.

The findings from this project will:

allow health and care commissioners to make decisions as to whether to continue to move healthcare services into community settings, and continue to reconfigure the maternity services in particular.
demonstrate the impact that moving away from traditional clinical settings, and into a community environment, have on stakeholders and beneficiaries.
provide a choice for patients concerning where and how they access care
build a foundation for future applied health research with LCC, LTHT, and ICB and foster a new approach to population health research.

Findings can also feed into additional funding opportunities (e.g. NIHR Research for Patient Benefit grant) for a longitudinal study comparing community-based delivery of healthcare using the library wellbeing pods to standard care in a clinical GP setting, exploring the impact on a range of short-term and long-term outcomes.

This could include pregnancy health outcomes (e.g. gestational weight gain, gestational diabetes, birth outcomes, mental health and wellbeing, smoking etc.) as well as the impact of the use of library services on child literacy, digital skills etc.

External collaborators

Leeds Health and Care Partnership

NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board

Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust

Leeds Libraries

News

Chance to check in as city’s libraries host pioneering wellbeing pods, Leeds City Council, 2023