Birthrights calls for government to shift strategy and support investment in maternity care NOW, before it’s too late
In 2024, the government called for submissions from NHS staff, experts from a wide range of organisations, and members of the public, to inform their 10-year health plan to improve the NHS. Birthrights submitted online evidence, drawing on:
- enquiries to our information and support service
- intelligence from our training service
- voices from communities across the country
- our policy, research and campaigns activity, including the ‘Systemic Racism, Not Broken Bodies’ report setting out the findings of our Race Inquiry.
We need a SAFE Maternity Care Act
We know from this body of evidence that far too often the human rights of all women and birthing people are overlooked, which is why we’re calling for the establishment of the SAFE Maternity Care Act – an act that ensures Safety, Accountability, Freedom of Choice and Equity that makes it crystal clear to all those who manage, deliver and regulate maternity care that the rights of women and birthing people must always come first.
Through our submission and consultation meetings as a member of the NHS Maternity and Neonatal Stakeholder Council to inform how the Government’s 10-year plan for the NHS relates to maternity care, we have made the case for urgent action to prevent further decline in maternal experiences and outcomes.
The government has proposed three shifts in the NHS model:
- Shift 1: moving more care from hospitals to communities
- Shift 2: making better use of technology in health and care
- Shift 3: focusing on preventing sickness, not just treating it.
Across all these domains there is the potential for real improvements in maternity care, whether it is improving access to community services, better support to access information to support decision-making or a focus on preventing physical and psychological trauma.
But for the shifts to have impact and lead to long-term change we cannot afford to wait until existing infrastructure is decimated.
That is why we are calling on the government and NHS to act now to:
- stop closures of birth centres
- stop restrictions and suspensions to home birth services
- ensure midwives have the skills to support physiological birth in the community, including skills to support more complex cases such as breech and twin births
- empower midwives to deliver person-centred care which means supporting out-of-guidelines care
- improve quality of and access to translation and interpreting services
- remove barriers preventing access to and trust in maternity care such as NHS charging, unnecessary referrals to police and social care, and detention of women and birthing people in immigration and criminal justice systems.
We are hopeful that there is scope for improvements in maternity care with a new plan for NHS service delivery but are deeply concerned that waiting until the current NHS delivery plan expires in 2026 will result in the complete dismantling of community infrastructure. It is critical that the government doesn’t wait to implement change in 2026, because by then, the community services they hope to make more use of, will already be lost.
We know from our information service that communities are already being deeply impacted by lack of investment in community services. It is critical that women and birthing people have access to the full spectrum of maternity care – this is fundamental to building back trust, addressing entrenched disparities, and delivering rights-respecting care.
