Wales Maternity Review Recommends National Leadership
The BirthTrauma Association has welcomed recommendations from a recent maternity review in Wales. Key proposals include establishing national leadership for maternity services and implementing new safety standards for patient triage and labor induction protocols.
- This national review, formally titled the All-Wales Maternity and Neonatal Assurance Assessment, was led by the former Children's Commissioner for Wales, Professor Sally Holland. The Welsh Government commissioned the assessment in May 2025 to get a real-time evaluation of the safety of maternity and neonatal services across Wales. - The assessment was prompted by learnings from an independent review of services at Swansea Bay University Health Board and similar reviews of NHS trusts in England. This follows a history of significant concerns, including major failings identified in 2019 at Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board's maternity services, which had been described as "dysfunctional" and put mothers and babies at risk. - A key outcome is the creation of a National Strategic Oversight Board to spearhead improvements and ensure accountability across the country. This is part of a three-year improvement program launched by the Welsh Government, which has accepted all but one of the review's recommendations in part. - The review's recommendations extend to workforce planning, with Health Education and Improvement Wales and NHS Performance and Improvement tasked to redevelop perinatal workforce plans to ensure safe staffing levels in health boards. - The new national program will also focus on implementing real-time safety monitoring systems and developing a standardized, trauma-informed operating procedure for responding to incidents. - This initiative is part of a broader effort to enhance maternity and neonatal care in Wales, which includes the ongoing Maternity and Neonatal Safety Support Programme (MatNeoSSP). This program was established in response to several reports raising serious concerns about maternity services in the UK. - The Birth Trauma Association, which supports the new recommendations, is a UK charity founded and run by women who have experienced birth trauma. The organization campaigns for improved maternal safety and was the lead organization advising on the 2024 parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma.
