Working together to improve maternity outcomes

“Our Women’s Health Strategy is only a success if it works for all women.”

The recent words of Victoria Atkins, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care offer cautious grounds for optimism. Her message is one that underpins everything we do at Tommy’s. As we say in our ten-year strategy, published last May: “Who you are should not impact the care you receive.”

We know there are unacceptable variations in pregnancy care experienced by women and birthing people from different ethnic and social backgrounds.

Tommy’s dedicated midwife helpline for Black and Black Mixed-Heritage women and birthing people aims to address exactly this issue, offering support and advice during pregnancy and afterwards to a group at particular risk of baby loss.

There's still more to be done though - and we’re going further with a new collaboration with Five X More and Petals that means we’ll be able to refer some users of that helpline directly to baby loss counselling charity Petals for free specialist bereavement support: Our new partnership to help Black women and birthing people affected by baby loss | Tommy's (tommys.org).

Achieving equity - in maternity care as in every other field of life - means recognising that individuals need different support.

That’s why it was encouraging to hear the Secretary of State announce a new ￡50 million ‘Challenge fund’ to inspire research that could help tackle inequities across maternity services.

For Tommy’s, this is already a key priority. ?For example, researchers at Tommy’s National Centre for Maternity Improvement have developed a clinical decision-making tool to help healthcare professionals more accurately assess a person's needs during pregnancy and to personalise their care.

Pilot projects have shown that using the Tommy’s Pathway could help reduce inequities for women and birthing people from Black, Asian and other minoritised ethnic backgrounds; our hope is that it can be rolled out more widely across the NHS in future.

But of course, we are part of a bigger system, and we can’t do this alone. There is so much more Government and healthcare providers could and should do for those most vulnerable to the poorest pregnancy experiences.

We’re committed to listening, to sharing and to collaborating with researchers, supporters, service users and policymakers so that everything we do reflects the needs of our diverse community. ?

And to working together with the many wonderful people in our maternity services who are working so hard, despite the chronic pressures and often very difficult situations they face.

It was heartening to hear the commitment and determination from everyone in the room at the Government’s Maternity Disparities Taskforce meeting to make tangible change for those women and families who are currently facing challenging and, in some cases, tragic outcomes. But we must make sure we translate words into action and impact so we can improve outcomes and save more babies’ lives.