Maternal death rates in the UK are at a 20 year high, as maternity care plummets further into crisis.

Despite this, the Department of Health has proposed a staggering £93m in cuts to service development funding for maternity care.

Following the Ockenden review, which highlighted poor maternity care at Shrewsbury and Telford NHS trust, revealing at least nine women and 201 babies, could have survived if given a better standard of care. As a consequence £95m in additional funding was pledged to be used for maternal care by NHS England. 

However, due to changes to the Department of Health, only £2m of this funding is confirmed to be spent on maternity care in the year 2025/26. 

At a time of such clear failings, Sheffield Wire’s campaign, Maternal health: Unseen threat, unequal care, is unearthing what lays at the foundations of the crisis. 

From midwives on the front line to mothers falling through the cracks, to an extended period of underfunding leading to less autonomy for mothers, alongside burnout and fear amongst midwives and a tick-box approach to birth.

Combined this results in a lack of adequate maternal and mental health support for new mothers, with disastrous consequences. 

One mother explained how the traumatic birth of her daughter left her with a severe fear of hospitals which eventually forced her to quit her job as a nurse.

Another woman shares her experience with HELLP syndrome – a rare and difficult to diagnose form of preeclampsia – that tragically led to son’s death, and left her fighting for her life. She is now calling for a better understanding of women’s health. 

Sheffield Wire also explores the impact a shortage of midwives is having on women’s right to choose home births, and the changes that campaigners are calling for.

Maternal health: Unseen threat, unequal care is #DemandingBetterBirths, and aims to prevent more women suffering in a broken maternity system.