A Year in Review

Birthrights entered 2024 with a clear vision to work towards a world where all women and birthing people can access safe maternity care that fully respects their right to bodily autonomy and self-agency, free from discrimination, coercion and violence.

With the introduction of a new 10-year strategic framework and moving into our second decade, the year brought with it a new energy and direction that placed our commitment to birth justice firmly at the centre of everything we do.

We know too many are not receiving the care they are entitled to.

Through enquiries to our advice and information service, engagement with community organisations, online communications, and training we deliver, it could not have been clearer that the UK’s maternity system remains in a state of crisis.

The parliamentary Birth Trauma Inquiry received more than 1,300 submissions, publishing its report in May, documenting experiences which at their heart had the familiar refrain of a failure to listen to women and birthing people. This was a missed opportunity, however, to amplify the voices of marginalised and minoritised communities and concerningly a legal inaccuracy contained within the report has been left uncorrected.

In July, Rise Associates published its review of the Nursing and Midwifery Council which painted a bleak picture of a culture marred by racism, bullying and burnout directly impacting public safety.

In its national review of maternity services published in September, the CQC highlighted the normalisation of preventable harm in maternity care, including poor pain management, delayed emergency caesareans, patients left lying in blood-stained sheets with limited access to toilets and showers, and racist discrimination.

We saw in October the annual MBRRACE report yet again documenting the gap in maternal outcomes – which appears to be narrowing, but only because outcomes are getting worse for everyone, not better for Black women. A special focus of this year’s report showed the additional barriers faced by migrant women and birthing people.

Birthrights continued to campaign for human rights to be upheld for all

Across this breadth of evidence, there was a consistent message – the human rights of women and birthing people are being restricted, violated and ignored on a daily basis across the UK.

This is why as an organisation our mission is to protect and champion human rights and work to raise awareness and understanding of how these apply to maternity care through the rights-based information we provide to women and birthing people, the training we deliver, and our legally informed policy influencing and campaigning.

And we continue to push for meaningful change through our policy work, campaigning and advocacy.

We wrote to multiple hospitals to challenge continued restrictions on chosen birth partners antenatally, through labour or postnatally, long after the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. We produced information and template letters for individuals and healthcare professionals to enable widespread pressure on hospitals to uphold the law. 

The surprise General Election announcement meant we accelerated our plans to call for legislation that ensures everyone involved in maternity care upholds human rights for all.  We continue to call on government to establish a new SAFE Maternity Care Act that ensures Safety, Accountability, Freedom of Choice and Equity are at the core of the maternity system.

At the height of summer we were left horrified, but sadly unsurprised, that relentless anti-immigrant and racist rhetoric had emboldened racist and Islamophobic violence to break out across parts of the UK. We channeled our energy into writing to local, regional and national politicians and policy makers to make sure resilience and emergency plans included the needs of pregnant people, insisting safe measures on access to the breadth of maternity care, particularly for Black, Brown and Muslim communities while ensuring the safety of staff.  

Building on our success

As an organisation we have been busy making sure we are ready and resourced to deliver on our ambitions and welcomed new team members and trustees. As a small team of part-time staff we are committed to working hard towards our vision for a better maternity system for all.

Moving into 2025

We are driven by a sense of justice and know that to affect change that is lasting and meaningful our work must be rooted in solidarity – working as a collective is crucial to shifting power. We will continue to reject limitations and false dichotomies which only serve division and seek to diminish the power of solidarity behind justice for all.

This is why we are excited and energised by the relationships we have built and nurtured through the year and by the new partnerships that will come in the year ahead.

We draw so much inspiration from the power, joy and activism in communities across the UK and hope that our work can continue to contribute to movements for reproductive and birth justice.