Eddie Jones, a partner  at JMW Solicitors who works on behalf of children who were severely injured due to maternity failures, comments on the need to maintain funding for maternity care in the UK.

With the NHS feeling the pinch of budgetary cuts and increasing costs due to inflation, it is essential that we ensure that there is adequate funding for maternity  care in the UK. Maternity  care is a vital part of our healthcare system not only as a medical function but for our society as a whole. 

Maternity care is undoubtedly a huge cost to the NHS. Each birth costs the taxpayer approximately £7,130 when antenatal care, labour and postnatal care are accounted for. With approximately 700,000 births in the UK each year, that equates to a total cost of nearly £5 billion to the NHS annually.  

A poorly funded NHS maternity service, however, has the potential to be even more expensive for the NHS. A highly pressurised environment where staff are increasingly overstretched will lead to more and more errors that result in clinical negligence cases against the NHS. In our work with parents who have been the subject of poor maternity care resulting in a claim for clinical negligence, we often see that it is the result of maternity staff  not having the resources they need to do their job to the best of their ability. The more that NHS funding is put under pressure, the more the risks associated with giving birth will increase. 

A Risky Business

While it is easy to think that modern medicine has made pregnancy and birth completely safe for both the mother and child, it is actually still one of the most dangerous life events that either will experience. The maternal mortality rate, which tracks the number of deaths of mothers during pregnancy, birth or the postnatal period, in the UK between 2016 and 2018 was 9.71 per 100,000. Meanwhile The number of babies who died before their first birthday  in England and Wales in 2020 was 3.6 per 1,000 live births. That is a huge mortality rate compared to even the most dangerous industry in the UK - construction - which saw a mortality rate of 1.64 per 100,000 in 2019-2020. Given the dangers that are facing mothers and their babies, the need to protect and increase the funding that the NHS receives in relation to maternal care is clear. 

Deep Pockets

Notwithstanding the health risks that a pregnancy poses even in the modern era, the personal cost of losing the right to free maternity  care is staggering. Currently, non-UK residents are charged a 50 per cent  surcharge on the cost of delivering a baby. Given that an average birth costs the NHS over £7,000, that would put the cost of having a baby to an individual at over £10,000. This would make it more expensive to give birth in the UK than in the USA, where the cost of a birth on a private healthcare plan is on average around $10,800 (£8,900). For many ppeople  this would simply be unaffordable or severely limit their ability to care for their child after the birth. 

Protecting the Vulnerable

While entirely private maternity care in the UK is unlikely to become the only option in the near future, funding reductions would have huge healthcare implications and would disproportionately discriminate against the most vulnerable in society. In fact, issues associated with infant death already affect disadvantaged families at a higher rate. Research has shown that when more is spent by governments on healthcare, it makes people’s life chances fairer. . Without the required  levels of funding, it is much more difficult to ensure everyone has the same opportunities. . The poorest in our society bear the brunt of the reductions in that funding, which creates a greater health/wealth divide. 

Societal Benefit

As well as protecting the most vulnerable, good maternity  funding benefits the whole of society. In fact, infant mortality is an indicator of the overall health of a population.. A low mortality rate indicates a good level of health across the board. Good medical advice that is available to all potential parents also allows people to make informed decisions, and improved access to funding such as the ‘Healthy Start’ scheme means that the parents and baby can thrive. Families that have access to this kind of information and funding contribute more to society, which brings huge benefits. 

For most, maternity  funding will be a key priority for NHS funding. However, seeing the stark numbers when it comes to the risks of reduced funding compared to the benefits associated with better care for mothers and babies shows just how critical it is. . As an indicator of a society as a whole, maternity  care needs to remain one of the most fundamental parts of our healthcare system.