A SURVEY of women who gave birth at Oxfordshire's hospitals last year has revealed what they thought of maternity services.

Carried out by the Care Quality Commission, 17,151 women responded nationally. This represented a response rate of 36.5 per cent, with the county's response rate higher at 47.8 per cent.

The average score for Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was one percentage point higher in 2019 than in 2018.

There was also at least a 10 per cent improvement since the previous year in the scores for two questions: one about women being offered a choice of giving birth at home, and the other about partners being able to stay as much as they wanted them to.

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The trust was in the bottom 20 per cent though for the opportunity to ask questions about labour and the birth.

Ali Cuthbertson, director of midwifery at the trust, said: “I am very proud of the service that we offer women in Oxfordshire.

"We have looked in detail at the results of this survey with staff, and it was great to be able to celebrate the positive feedback with them."

She added: "Clearly there are still areas where we know we need to do more, and we continue to work to improve our postnatal care and also to improve the options for women contacting us when they are in labour.”