PURPOSE:
New Zealand midwifery is facing critical challenges. Funding crises in public health provision; shortages of midwives, obstetricians and specialist services; skill-mix problems; rapidly evolving demographics; embedded health inequities. This presentation will illustrate how a range of digital approaches to care delivery are used to address some of these issues in South Auckland, the most culturally diverse and lowest socio-economic population in Aotearoa.

DISCUSSION:
Digital improvements started in 2020 and expanded rapidly since. Initially there was little intra-operability in systems. Maternity was on a digital island. This was intensely frustrating and brilliantly liberating. It enabled the instigation of widespread review of local community midwifery service delivery and change management of our processes of care. We looked closely at service structure and delivery. Who was it structured to serve? How could a shared record and digital approaches improve pregnancy care continuity and outcomes? Digitisation has enabled a re-think on how to be accessible, safe, effective and meaningful for clients, while being acceptable, efficient and “doable” by staff. We focus on health equity for our services users and ask how would digital changes make things better for them and their pregnancy?

EVIDENCE WHERE RELEVANT:
The presentation provides a range of transferable operational examples of how digital maternity care can be implemented.

KEY MESSAGE:
The evolution of midwifery staff from allergic reaction to technophiles in relation to PCs, laptops, tablets, smart phones and mobile work stations has been fundamental. We work and communicate differently now. Our clinical thinking patterns and behaviours have evolved. We just didn’t transfer from paper to electronic; it was much more profound than that. The functionality helped us to address service delivery and quality of care issues in new ways. It has provided a platform for innovation and change and to listen to what clients want as their maternity service care options in a digital age. Poster session 2 (Group A)