Building Successful Perinatal Optimization Teams: Effective teamworking, shared goals and positive communication

Speaker: Dr Julie-Clare Becher 

Date: April 28^th, 3:00 PM CEST / 9:00 AM USA 

Abstract

The Perinatal Team is an extensive interconnected network of professionals from different specialties, backgrounds and even geographical locations who have roles which may be distinct but which commonly converge on achieving the best outcomes for women and their babies. However despite this common goal, differing priorities, management structures and professional responsibilities can impact the Perinatal Team culture with sub-teams tending to operate in professional silos with little collaboration or inter-team communication. This presentation will focus on building more successful perinatal optimisation teams and, in particular, around early milk expression, offering a solution-based approach to foster interdisciplinary collaboration.

Learning Objectives

1. By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
2. Explain how team culture influences perinatal optimisation outcomes, particularly early maternal breastmilk provision for preterm infants.
3. Describe the complexity of perinatal care systems and how fragmented pathways, competing priorities, and inter-team dynamics affect practice.
4. Identify key barriers and enablers to culture change, including leadership, shared goals, communication, and readiness for quality improvement.
5. Recognise the importance of social capital and shared responsibility in building effective, collaborative perinatal optimisation teams.
6. Apply practical strategies to strengthen teamworking and quality improvement capacity within their own clinical context.

Registration Link: https://app.livestorm.co/p/150c3b98-4b81-47b2-877b-aa4ad2cc7dc9  

Dr. Becher is a consultant neonatologist and a senior lecturer in Child Life and Health at the University of Edinburgh. In her role as Quality Lead with the British Association of Perinatal Medicine until 2021, she established a nationwide programme of Perinatal Optimisation QI, including chairing the ‘Building Successful Perinatal Teams’ QI Toolkit. She worked with the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme, NHS England as a member of the NHSE Culture group and chair of the Optimisation Bundle and Pathway Design Group 2020-22.  She is wholly committed to understanding how culture and context underpins the success of quality improvement efforts.