Personal Health Budgets and Maternity Care

As part of the piloting of personal health budgets across England, one site piloted personal health budgets for maternity care. A particularly deprived locality was chosen, where there was a risk of women with social and health problems failing to access conventional antenatal services. Thirty six women were offered personal health budgets, ten were selected for in-depth interview, three months after the birth of their baby. These ten were among the first to be offered a budget for maternity care and may not have been representative of all 36 women.Interviewees were almost wholly positive about the benefits of the personal health budget on their well-being and, indirectly, on their babies and families as well. Their subjective accounts are consistent with the overall findings of the main personal health budget evaluation, that personal health budgets can have a positive impact on care-related quality of life and psychological well-being. Interviewees appreciated the information and help they had with planning how to use their budget and the fact that they did not have to be responsible for sourcing services or managing the budget. Some suggestions for improving information about the budget were made, particularly to emphasise the fact that it could be used flexibly before and after birth, and that support plans could be reviewed and revised, should health or other problems prevent the budget being used as originally agreed.