Tommy’s and Sands UK have today published The Saving Babies’ Lives Progress Report which pulls together data from different sources to provide a picture of pregnancy and baby loss across the UK.
Responding to the report Birthrights co-Chief Executives Janaki Mahadevan and Shanthi Gunesekera said:
“This report provides further evidence of the heartbreaking consequences of the government’s failure to recognise and address systemic inequalities in this country.
“The loss of any baby is a tragedy. Knowing how many of these deaths are preventable should be a wake-up call to prioritise safe, personalised, and equitable care for all.
“We saw through our Race Inquiry ‘Systemic Racism, not broken bodies’, that racism is at the root of many inequities in maternity outcomes and experiences. This has to change.
“The Government must act and must act now. We need a maternity system that is fully staffed and properly funded to address the crisis in care. We need policy and decision makers to recognise the drivers of entrenched inequality and racism that lead to such stark disparities in maternal outcomes if we are to avoid further avoidable deaths.”