In 2024, the then Conservative government agreed to a host of recommendations contained in the hard-hitting cross-party parliamentary report on birth trauma led by myself and Rosie Duffield MP. It was called: ‘Listen to Mums: ending the postcode lottery on perinatal care’.
Sadly, one year on from the publication we find this Labour government has failed to implement any of its recommendations and consequently, it is failing to improve the poor care new mums still face in what is fast becoming another component of a continuing national healthcare scandal around maternity services.
The inquiry report found poor maternity care was tolerated as normal and that care was often geographically inconsistent. Change was needed, and we felt the government and the opposition had listened. Before he became Health Secretary, Wes Streeting was briefed by myself on the report and he warmly welcomed it. The then Health Secretary Victoria Akins was able to go further and she agreed to support a new comprehensive national maternity strategy to improve care. The government also announced new standalone GP appointments at six to eight weeks for new mums to ask those crucial questions about whether she is okay, especially following birth trauma. NHS England was asked to co-produce a new decision-making tool for new mums to help guide through choices on how they give birth, what interventions could happen and what pain relief they should be offered. Improved perinatal pelvic and mental health services were also to be rolled out, including guidance to better support women who experience serious tears. Finally, the National Institute for Health and Care Research was commissioned to collate new research into the economic impact of birth trauma, including how this affects women returning to work.
In May 2024, we had huge progress. In May 2025, nothing – and, to make matters worse, we are moving backwards. The government recently announced the ringfenced national Service Development Funding for maternity services will drop from £95m in 2024-25 to just £2m in 2025-26. Ministers say Independent Care Boards will decide how to spend the money instead. Many campaigners are appalled and fear, like I do, the money will be sent to other services, leaving new mums even more unsafe.
Meanwhile Wes Streeting, who is apparently still considering the report, is not returning my calls, despite calling it a ‘superb, groundbreaking report into birth trauma with sobering findings and serious recommendations’. Rosie and I did recently meet with Baroness Gillian Merron – the minister for patient safety, women’s health and mental health. Alarmingly, she could not confirm if any of the recommendations the previous government had agreed were now implemented. It is a sorry situation and we must redouble our efforts to make this right.
This month sees the launch of my book ‘Breaking the Taboo: Why we need to talk about birth trauma’. It tells the story of how I suffered a third-degree tear giving birth to my daughter Arabella in 2022, and how I thought I was going to die as I started to bleed and needed to be operated on. That terrifying experience and the subsequent poor care I received led me to contact other mums. I launched a campaign in parliament for better birth trauma care, held the first ever debate on birth trauma in the House of Commons and brought together experts and mums to give evidence to the inquiry that led to the report this government is now ignoring.
I stand with eminent campaigners like Donna Ockendon, Mumsnet, Louise Thompson and the Birth Trauma Association in working to force the government to act. Women deserve better NHS maternity care than they are presently receiving.
The campaign continues and our hope is the publicity from the book launch will be brought to bear on the Health Secretary. I have also set up a new charity called the Global Birth Trauma Alliance to help with the campaign. So many women all over the world are suffering, and change is needed on an international level as well as here in Britain.
The warning for this government then is clear: there can be no further delay in implementing the report’s recommendations. They were obviously good enough for the last government and just saying you are looking at them 12 months on is simply not good enough.
Backed by brilliant campaigners and the brave mums who spoke of the mental and physical effects of birth trauma, and backed by what is right, I know that sooner or later Wes Streeting will have to take our calls. This army remains mobilised, it has many effective leaders and it will continue the fight because poor maternity care is an inequality and an injustice.
‘Breaking the Taboo’ by Theo Clarke is published by Biteback.
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