A damning report by two baby charities has estimated that thousands of babies’ lives are being lost because of failures to improve NHS maternity care in England.
At least 2,500 fewer babies would have died in England since 2018 if the NHS had adequately addressed maternity care failings. This was the conclusion of a joint study authored by baby charities Tommy’s and Sand.
The rate of neonatal and stillbirth deaths was found to be high despite the targets set for improvement.
Dr Robert Wilson, who heads Sands and Tommy’s joint policy unit, said: “Hundreds of fewer babies a year would have died since 2018 if the government had met its ambition to halve the rates of stillbirths and neonatal deaths in England by 2025.”
The number of avoidable baby deaths is “the equivalent of around 100 primary school classrooms”, Wilson added.
“The response from government and policymakers to the ongoing crisis in maternity and neonatal care and the scale of pregnancy and baby loss in the UK is simply not good enough. Too many people continue to suffer the heartbreak of losing a baby”, he continued.
5.1 stillbirths were reported for every 1,000 births in 2010. In 2023, the rate was 3.9 – missing the 2.6 target significantly – according to the most recent Office for National Statistics data.
If the target had been met, there would have been 565 fewer stillbirths in 2023, the joint report stated.
In 2010, there were two neonatal deaths per 1,000 births. The 2025 target was one, but in 2023, the rate had fallen to just 1.4 per 1,000.
The report concluded from the data that “progress has stagnated more recently and is not on track to meet the ambitions”.
Clea Harmer, the CEO of Sands, said: “These are not simply numbers, these are babies who are loved and will never be forgotten by their parents and families.”
It recently emerged that couples had aborted their babies after being informed by the NHS that they had life-limiting genetic disorders, diagnoses that later turned out to be false.
An investigation into the wrong diagnoses found “a series of deficiencies in care, knowledge and process”.
Another investigation into the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, where the abortions took place, is currently looking into the maternity care given to over 2,000 families at its two hospitals.
The conclusions of the report are expected in June 2026.
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