Birth reflections service

Our birth reflections service gives you the opportunity to talk through your birth experience.

It helps you explore your experience and feelings with our patient experience midwife. You can bring someone with you to the appointment or come alone.

Who it’s for

It’s for women who’ve given birth with Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust within the past 12 months. We can’t accept referrals after this point unless you’re currently pregnant.

Contact Bucks Talking Therapy for specialist support if you’re experiencing:

• significant birth trauma
• emotional distress.

You’ll need to do this before booking a birth reflections appointment.

Your maternity notes

If you want a timeline of events, you can request a copy of your maternity notes. Email bht.subjectaccessrequests@nhs.net or call 01296 315865. If you have questions after reviewing your notes, you can self-refer to birth reflections.

When you can self-refer

You can self-refer from 6 weeks post-birth. This time frame allows you space to process your experience, feel ready to talk about it, and consider what you’d like to get out of the appointment.

How to self-refer

Complete our online form You’ll get an email confirming receipt after you submit the form.

Appointment availability

A midwife runs the service 2 days a week. There’s currently a waiting time of up 10 16 weeks.

We experience fluctuating demand and can’t respond to emails about your appointment. Once you’ve received a confirmation email, it means we have your referral, and will contact you to arrange an appointment at the earliest opportunity.

Where the appointment will take place

We do appointments over the phone, on MS Teams, or face to face. They’re strictly limited to 60 minutes in length.

We’ll contact you to arrange a date/time for your appointment. If we don’t get a response from you within 21 days, we’ll presume you no longer need an appointment.

If you need to re-arrange your appointment

We can only re-arrange you birth reflection appointment once. Due to a limited number of appointments available each week, you’ll need to re-submit a self-referral form if you cancel your re-arranged appointment.

Other sources of help

Birth reflections isn’t a counselling or complaints service so you may need help or follow up from another organisation.

Below are some that you may find useful.