Today the Maternity Safety Alliance – a parent-led campaign group, including bereaved parents and grandparents – is calling for a public inquiry into maternity safety in England.
This is another opportunity for the government to listen to the voices of families who have experienced unthinkable tragedies. Baby Lifeline urges the government to act quickly and thoughtfully on the recommendations from the many recent investigations into maternity safety.
Maternity and neonatal care has been scrutinised over the last few years, with a number of high-profile investigations happening at NHS Trusts in England – University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, Shrewsbury and Telford, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust, and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. The Maternity Safety Alliance is highlighting the need for national change:
“Over and over again we hear that ‘lessons will be learned’ – and yet those same failings continue…
We now have a good understanding of what clinical best practice looks like, but the barriers to ensuring every mother and every baby receives safe care have so far proved insurmountable, with problems in culture, leadership, inequality, service structures, education and training, accountability, and governance seemingly intractable.”
Research by Baby Lifeline – Mind the Gap – has repeatedly found that there are detrimental gaps in training offered to the NHS frontline which related to the most frequent and repeated causes of harm and death in maternity care. There must be a strong focus on implementing recommendations and prioritising transformative change.
“The Maternity Safety Alliance is another example of bereaved families having to fight to be heard - to compel the government to act, and to prevent others from experiencing life-altering, preventable tragedies. And we must start listening.
Baby Lifeline fully supports the need for national progress and is calling for investment and the proper implementation of recommended actions, which will save the lives of mothers and babies. There are a number of repeated recommendations from reports into maternity safety, and many of these reports sit gathering dust.
We urge the government to act quickly and thoughtfully on the recommendations from the many investigations that have happened in maternity care. We have a lot more work to do.”
Baby Lifeline
Baby Lifeline is a unique national charity whose mission is to make care safer and better for every pregnant woman, pregnant person, and newborn baby all over the UK and worldwide. It does this by supporting and working with NHS professionals at the heart of care – buying equipment, developing and providing critical training, and conducting research.