67% of maternity units in England are currently rated unsafe by the CQC, an increase from 55% a year ago, and is the poorest rating of all hospital services.
The number of units receiving “inadequate” safety ratings was also found to have doubled from 7% to 15% since September last year.
A spokesperson for the CQC said the findings were “unacceptable… We’ve seen this deterioration, and action needs to happen now, so that women can have the assurance they need that they’re going to get that high-quality care in any maternity setting across England.”
The decline in safety follows several scandals relating to inadequate maternity care at NHS trusts across England. Last year, a damning report into what became known as the “Shrewsbury maternity scandal” slammed the local NHS trust for catastrophic failings after the avoidable deaths of at least 201 babies and nine mothers.
Meanwhile, a survey found that recent mothers are three times more likely to die in the UK than in Norway. The study, published in the BMJ, ranked the UK the second lowest out of eight developed countries.
Another study also found that mothers dying during or after pregnancy had risen by nearly 20% in recent years – when 229 mothers died during pregnancy or up to six weeks after birth between 2018 to 2020.
“Maternal mortality rates are a barometer of health systems”, stated Professor Marian Knight, the lead author of the study, and noted that “maternal mortality has got significantly worse”.
Midwives decry the shocking state of maternity
Last year, thousands of people, including midwives and new parents, attended dozens of marches across the UK to call for “urgent change” to maternity services nearing “breaking point”.
“We need urgent change to ensure the right quality of care for the people of this country”, said one concerned midwife, Sharon Newman, attending a march in Gloucestershire.
More than half of midwives have considered leaving the profession, according to a Royal College of Midwives survey, which found that 57% of midwives planned to leave the NHS within the next 12 months – with most disaffected midwives coming from recent intakes of staff over the last five years.
March with Midwives also says that out of 30 midwives currently undergoing training, 29 are either not starting their job or are leaving it.
Laura McLaren, a midwife from Brighton, said: “I have been a midwife for six years and the situation is getting worse and worse… Midwives are getting burnt out and they [the Government] need to take the recruitment crisis seriously… People will lose their lives because of cuts to services.”
Responding to the marches, a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson claimed that the Government was committed to “investing 127 million pounds into NHS maternity services to boost the workforce and improve neo-natal care”.
Indifference towards the health and safety of mothers
SPUC’s Michael Robinson, Executive Director (Public Affairs and Legal Services), said: “The shocking state of maternity care and its continued decline is part of a broader indifference towards the health of women and their babies, before and after birth.
“While maternity units are becoming more dangerous, it is no coincidence that abortions are also surging in England, due in no small part to the Government’s dangerous DIY home abortion scheme, now made permanent despite the public having voiced justifiable concerns about its risks.
“Meanwhile, the same pro-abortion ideologues who claim to care about women’s choices and well-being have little, if anything, to say about the crisis affecting maternity care in England. Politicians who went out of their way to force through DIY abortion cannot be bothered to bring maternity care up to even a basic level of safety.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the priority for many politicians and pro-abortion activists is not women’s safety or ‘choice’ but the promulgation of abortion, whatever the cost.”
