From participants to partners: a strategy for establishing a national consumer fellow to lead the co-design of maternity patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs)

Patient‑reported experience measures (PREMs) and patient‑reported outcome measures (PROMs) play an increasingly important role in assessing the quality and safety of healthcare. However, their application in maternity care is relatively contemporary, and progress is hindered by the absence of high‑quality, validated, maternity‑specific tools. In Australia, there are no nationally standardized maternity PREMs or PROMs capable of capturing whether care provided during the transformative period of childbearing aligns with the needs, expectations, and priorities of those giving birth. Without genuine consumer co‑design, current approaches to developing maternity PREMs and PROMs risk failing to capture the complexity and diversity of women’s experiences and outcomes. The development of national consumer co-designed maternity PREMs and PROMs in Australia is a critical opportunity to ensure that which is measured, genuinely reflects what matters to women. Globally however, maternity care lacks validated PREMs and PROMs that have been meaningfully co‑designed with consumers. Addressing this gap requires intentional, rigorous co‑design grounded in five core principles: authentic consumer leadership; diverse and inclusive representation; iterative, continuous engagement; respectful and reciprocal partnership supported by equitable reimbursement; and alignment with best‑practice frameworks that safeguard against tokenism. Together, these principles underpin contemporary models of consumer involvement, including dedicated consumer leadership roles and structured advisory groups, to meaningfully embed lived experience to co-design maternity care PREMs and PROMs. A co-design approach that centers women as active partners, rather than passive participants, is essential for producing PREMs and PROMs that are relevant, acceptable and impactful in real-world maternity care. Rigorous, inclusive co‑design provides the foundation for measurement systems capable of driving meaningful and lasting improvements in the safety, quality, and person‑centeredness of maternity care.