Introduction to Maternity Services Review
Hungry mothers, dirty wards, and poor care are affecting maternity services in England, while staff in some departments are receiving death threats over their work, according to a new report. The review looks at the lowest performing maternity and newborn services. Some women felt blamed for their baby’s death, while others suffered from a lack of empathy, care, or apology when something went wrong, and poor and black mothers were often at the receiving end of discriminatory services.
Findings of the Review
The leader of the study into obstetrics said what she had seen so far was "much worse" than she expected. Health Minister said: “The systemic failures that cause preventable tragedies cannot be ignored.” He also said that the update "shows that too many families have been let down, with devastating consequences".
Systemic Failures in Maternity Services
The National Maternity and Newborn Inquiry is set to produce a series of national recommendations to improve maternity and newborn services, after previous research highlighted problems but did not result in sufficient sustained improvements. The report highlights how deeply rooted poor care is. Several reviews over the last decade have resulted in 748 recommendations for improvements, yet the damage continues.
Experiences of Families and Staff
After visiting seven NHS trusts and meeting over 170 families, the leader of the review repeatedly encountered the following:
- Lack of cleanliness, women not receiving meals or assistance using the toilet when catheters are not drained
- Women are not listened to, including concerns about restricted fetal movements
- Women of color, working-class women, and people with mental health issues receive discriminatory treatment
- NHS organizations “mark their own homework” when babies died or were injured, failing to address poor behavior including inappropriate language
Maternity services staff were also included in the review. Some said they had been pelted with rotten fruit, while others said they had received death threats or been attacked on social media following negative coverage.
Response to the Review
The final report will be published in the spring, but the investigation is controversial. Some families are convinced that the limited options and the short time available mean that no meaningful action can follow. The Maternity Safety Alliance said initial considerations had put staff’s feelings "foreground" while minimizing the "avoidable harm that occurs every day in NHS maternity services". A long-time maternity safety campaigner said that while the issues identified reflect long-standing problems, he championed the work as "the best opportunity in a generation to finally put maternity services on a safer path".
Next Steps
The Health Minister will chair a new national maternity and newborn working group in the new year, which will be responsible for implementing the recommendations. He promised that families who have suffered from poor care will “remain the focus of the following review”.
