Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
Birth Perspective provides personalised midwifery education, information and consultation services relating to pregnancy, birth preparation and birth preferences.
For the purposes of UK data protection law, the data controller is:
Birth Perspective Ltd
Ashtead, Surrey, KT21
Email: hello@birthperspective.co.uk
Company number: 17473928
2. Information we may collect
Depending on the service you use, we may collect:
Personal and contact information
Your name
Email address
Telephone number
Address or general location
Date of birth
Emergency contact details, where appropriate
Pregnancy and maternity information
To provide a personalised service, we may ask you to share information about your pregnancy and maternity care, which may include:
Your estimated due date
Previous pregnancies and births
Relevant medical or pregnancy history
Current pregnancy circumstances
Your maternity hospital or maternity service
Planned place of birth
Information about proposed or planned induction of labour
Planned or possible caesarean birth
Pregnancy complications or changes to your care pathway
Information about your birth preferences
Questions, concerns or priorities you would like to discuss
Information you voluntarily provide during your consultations
Information concerning your health is treated as special category personal data and is handled with additional care.
We will only ask for information that we reasonably need to provide the Birth Perspective service.
Booking and payment information
We may process information relating to your bookings, payments, cancellations and purchases.
Where payments are processed through a third-party payment provider, Birth Perspective may not receive or store your complete payment card details.
Website information
When you use our website, certain technical information may be collected, such as your IP address, browser/device information and information about how you use our website.
Please see our Cookie Policy for further information.
3. Why we use your information
We may use your information to:
Respond to your enquiry
Process and manage your booking
Understand your individual circumstances before your consultation
Match you with an appropriate Birth Perspective midwife
Prepare for and provide your consultation
Personalise the information discussed with you
Prepare and send relevant information packs
Create your personalised Birth Perspective birth preferences document
Generate or provide access to your birth preferences document, including through a QR code where this service is provided
Communicate with you before and after your appointments
Process payments
Manage cancellations and refunds
Maintain appropriate business and consultation records
Respond to complaints or concerns
Meet our legal, regulatory, insurance and professional obligations
Improve the Birth Perspective service
Send marketing communications where we have an appropriate lawful basis to do so
4. Our lawful basis for using your information
Different lawful bases may apply depending on why we are using your information.
These may include:
Contract — where processing your information is necessary to provide a service you have requested or to take steps before entering into a contract with you.
Legal obligation — where we need to process information to comply with a legal obligation.
Legitimate interests — where processing is reasonably necessary for the operation and protection of Birth Perspective and those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.
Consent — where we have specifically asked for your consent, for example for certain marketing activities.
Because some of the information you provide relates to your health, pregnancy or maternity care, we must also identify an appropriate condition under Article 9 of the UK GDPR before processing special category information.
Our specific Article 9 condition(s) will be documented appropriately and will depend upon the nature and purpose of the service and processing concerned.
5. Your pre-consultation questionnaire
Before your consultation, we may ask you to complete a questionnaire.
This helps us understand a little about you, your pregnancy, where you are receiving maternity care and the topics that are most important to you.
You do not need to provide information that is not relevant to your Birth Perspective consultation.
The information you provide may be reviewed by Birth Perspective and shared with the Birth Perspective midwife allocated to your consultation where this is necessary to provide your service.
6. Sharing information with your Birth Perspective midwife
Birth Perspective works with appropriately qualified midwives to provide our services.
Where another Birth Perspective midwife is providing your consultation, we may share the information reasonably necessary for them to understand your circumstances and provide the service.
Midwives working with Birth Perspective are expected to maintain appropriate standards of confidentiality and data protection.
We do not give practitioners access to personal information simply because they work with Birth Perspective. Access should be limited to information necessary for their role and the clients they are supporting.
7. Your Birth Perspective birth preferences document
Where included within your service, Birth Perspective may create a personalised birth preferences document based on your consultations.
You will be provided with a digital version of this document.
Where requested, we may also provide a QR code designed to allow you and/or maternity professionals caring for you to access your birth preferences more easily.
You remain in control of whether you choose to share your Birth Perspective document or QR code with your NHS maternity team or other healthcare professionals.
Your Birth Perspective document is intended to communicate your preferences and support conversations with the healthcare professionals responsible for your care. It does not replace your NHS maternity record or your healthcare team's clinical documentation.
8. Information packs
Following a consultation, we may send you personalised information relating to the topics discussed.
This may include information about maternity care, birth environments, birth preferences, induction of labour, caesarean birth, pain relief, maternity pathways or other relevant topics.
We aim to use reliable and appropriate sources of information.
9. Who else may receive your information?
Where necessary, we may use trusted third-party providers to help operate Birth Perspective.
These may include:
Website and hosting providers
Secure email providers
Booking or scheduling systems
Payment processors
Questionnaire/form providers
Secure document storage providers
Accounting and bookkeeping providers
IT and technical support providers
Professional advisers
Insurance providers
Other service providers necessary to operate Birth Perspective
Where a third party processes personal information on our behalf, we take appropriate steps to ensure suitable data protection arrangements are in place.
We may also disclose information where required by law or where disclosure is necessary in connection with legal, regulatory, safeguarding or professional obligations.
We do not sell your personal information.
10. NHS maternity services
Birth Perspective is an independent service and is separate from the NHS maternity service providing your clinical care.
Information you provide to Birth Perspective will not automatically become part of your NHS maternity record.
We will not routinely contact your NHS maternity team or hospital about you.
Where you choose to share your Birth Perspective birth preferences document with your maternity team, you are responsible for deciding when and with whom it is shared, unless we have specifically agreed otherwise.
There may be exceptional circumstances in which information needs to be disclosed where required by law or where there is a serious safeguarding or safety concern. Any such disclosure would be considered carefully and limited to what is necessary and lawful.
11. How we protect your information
We take the security of personal and health information seriously.
We use appropriate organisational and technical measures designed to protect personal information against unauthorised access, alteration, loss, disclosure or misuse.
These measures may include:
Password-protected systems
Appropriate access controls
Secure cloud-based storage
Limiting access to information to those who reasonably need it
Appropriate confidentiality requirements for Birth Perspective practitioners
Secure methods of sharing documents containing sensitive information
Reviewing the systems and providers we use
No electronic system can be guaranteed to be completely secure, but we take reasonable and proportionate steps to protect the information entrusted to us.
12. How long we keep your information
We will not keep personal information for longer than is reasonably necessary.
Different types of information may need to be retained for different periods depending on:
Why the information was collected
Professional or clinical-record considerations
Legal requirements
Tax and accounting requirements
Insurance requirements
The need to establish, exercise or defend legal claims
Our specific retention periods are set out in our internal data-retention policy.
When information is no longer required, it will be securely deleted or anonymised where appropriate.
13. Cookies
Our website may use cookies and similar technologies.
Some cookies are necessary for the website to function. Other cookies, such as certain analytics or marketing cookies, may require your consent.
Where consent is required, these cookies should not be activated unless you choose to accept them.
You can find further information in our Cookie Policy and change your cookie preferences where available.
14. Your data protection rights
Depending on the circumstances and the lawful basis relied upon, you may have rights including:
The right to be informed about how your information is used
The right to access personal information we hold about you
The right to request correction of inaccurate information
The right to request deletion of your information in certain circumstances
The right to request restriction of processing in certain circumstances
The right to object to certain processing
The right to data portability in certain circumstances
Rights relating to certain automated decision-making, where applicable
Some rights do not apply in every circumstance.
To exercise your rights, contact:
hello@birthperspective.co.uk
We may need to verify your identity before responding to a request.
15. Complaints
If you have concerns about how Birth Perspective has handled your personal information, please contact us first so that we can try to resolve the issue.
Email: hello@birthperspective.co.uk
You also have the right to raise concerns with the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
16. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our services, technology or legal obligations.
The most recent version will be published on our website and the date at the top of this policy will be updated.
17. Contact us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or how Birth Perspective uses your information, please contact:
Birth Perspective Ltd
Email: hello@birthperspective.co.uk
Website: www.birthperspective.co.uk