Meet Katie. She’s expecting a baby and over the course of her pregnancy she’ll be offered a number of screening tests. Later she gives birth to baby Thomas and is offered further tests for him too.
Katie and Thomas are the stars of our new screening animation, which in just 2 ½ minutes explains all the types of screening offered during pregnancy and for newborn babies.
We’ve worked with the NHS Choices video team and an animation company to produce this resource. We held focus groups with women during the development to make sure it’s easy to follow and answers the common questions people have.
The video officially launched today and we will be promoting it as widely as we can over the coming weeks.
You can view the animation below by clicking the play button on the embedded video. It is also available through YouTube and on the screening tests in pregnancy page on NHS Choices. We hope it will supplement the other information, such as the leaflet, and provide a more engaging way of explaining antenatal and newborn screening to pregnant women, new mums and their families.
If the resource is popular, we hope to develop other videos in this series, including animations to explain:
- a general introduction of what screening is
- the screening tests offered to females throughout their lives
- the screening tests offered to males throughout their lives
We’ll let you know about progress with these in due course.
For now, we’d really appreciate everyone’s help in publicising this video. Please:
- watch the video yourselves
- share it with colleagues and your professional networks by sending them this blog or the YouTube link
- like or retweet it if you spot it on Facebook or Twitter
- share it with pregnant women and new mums through your trust’s social media
- think about how it can be embedded in local screening services and primary care
For instance, perhaps the animation could be played in antenatal clinics and GP surgeries. Please let us know by commenting below if you have good ideas.
You can also contact the screening helpdesk if you’d like a high resolution version for local use. We can also provide a version with subtitles so the video can be used even without any sound.
We hope you enjoy watching the video as much as we enjoyed developing it.
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9 comments
Comment by Nicki T posted on
I think this video is very informative, perhaps when the women visit the GP to confirm pregnancy, the GP could signpost the women to this video prior to their booking appointment.
Comment by Yasmeen Malik posted on
Animation is great. Could we also expand this across the mammography breast screening services? Perhaps even have these animations available at GP practice TV monitors to promote NHS health services.
Comment by Andrew Anderson posted on
Thanks for your feedback. We do hope to produce further animations in the series, including one showing the screening tests offered to women throughout their lives. We can’t control how the animation is used but can provide a high resolution version to show on large screens, for example at GP surgeries. We’d love to hear from anyone who’s done this.
Comment by margaret Costello posted on
Really liked this video. I wonder if at 0.36/2.34 where information is given about screening for 3 infectious diseases if something could be added at this point as to what happens if you were to screen positive for either of these infections...ie
If you screen positive for any of these infections your midwife will arrange a referral to an appropriate specialist for management of your condition
Comment by Mike Harris posted on
Thank you for your feedback Margaret.
We’re glad you like the animation and thanks for your suggestion. We’ve not included information about pathways for screen positive results at the moment as we don’t want the animation to become too long or complicated. But we’ll review all the feedback in due course and determine whether to make any changes.
Comment by Sam Ellicott posted on
Congratulations on this video which brings to mind the possibility of doing something similar for the AAA Screening Programme. Is this a realistic proposition?
Sam Ellicott
Patient Representative
NAAASP
Comment by Mike Harris posted on
Hi Sam,
Thank you for your comment. If this animation proves to be popular, we hope to be able to work with NHS Choices to develop other videos, including an animation to explain abdominal aortic aneurysm screening and the other screening tests offered to males throughout their lives.
Comment by nicola robinson posted on
would be great in different languages
Comment by Mike Harris posted on
Hi Nicola,
Thank you for your suggestion. We will certainly look into the possibility of producing the subtitles of the animation in different languages.