Bringing a child into the world can be the most joyful, but potentially stressful experience. We all hope that the people responsible for delivering babies will be well-equipped to provide the best care possible. Unfortunately, lack of investment and worsening staff shortages have put increased pressure on the NHS, meaning that many midwives are not currently able to deliver the quality of care that they would like to.

There is an existing shortage of over 2,000 midwives. The Royal College of Midwives has written about how the midwife staffing crisis is compromising patient care. Midwives are being spread too thinly, so that they are unable to provide the high-quality care that they want to. The staffing shortage is also impacting on midwives’ wellbeing, leading to a vicious cycle where more midwives leave the profession, and the staffing crisis gets worse still.

The Ockenden reviews of maternity services, published in 2020 and 2022, have a clear focus on increasing funding, and also listening to women and families. There are many ways to have your voice heard. You can get in touch with a Maternity Voices Partnership. These are groups of women, families, commissioners, midwives, and doctors, who work together to review and develop local maternity care. If something has gone wrong in an NHS hospital, you can also make a complaint via the NHS complaints procedure. My colleague Nicola Wainwright recently wrote a blog on how to go about this.

Since the Ockenden review of 2020, we have seen a £95.6M investment into maternity services across England, including support for 1,200 additional midwifery roles, international recruitment for midwives, and support for recruitment and retention of maternity support workers. While this is generally regarded as not enough, it is certainly a step in the right direction.

Maternity services desperately need funding in order to give mothers the best chance of having an unproblematic delivery. My hope is that the Ockenden review, alongside other forms of political pressure, will continue to push for positive change.

How can we help?

At JMW, we represent individuals who have suffered harm as a result of poor maternity care and understand the devastation it can cause.

For example, we have represented families who have suffered avoidable stillbirths as a result of failings in maternity care. We have also represented children who have been born with brain injuries, including cerebral palsy, as a result of negligent delivery.

If you have received poor maternity care and it has caused you or your family harm, please get in touch with a member of our team and we would be happy to help you.