Tackling baby loss must be a priority for the next government

Today we’re calling on the next government to prioritise improvements in maternity care and baby loss, in a document published by the Sands and Tommy’s Joint Policy Unit.

Today we’re calling on the next government to prioritise improvements in maternity care and baby loss, in a document published by the Sands and Tommy’s Joint Policy Unit.

We’ve set out 5 key steps that will help save babies’ lives and reduce the inequities that put some women and birthing people at higher risk of pregnancy loss than others.

Our call to action highlights the need to look again at national ambitions around maternity safety.

The target in England is to halve the rate of stillbirth, neonatal and maternal deaths by 2025 compared with 2010, and to cut premature births from 8% to 6% of the total.

That could save around 1,000 lives a year, but we are not on track to meet it.

We believe these ambitions should be strengthened and rolled out across all four UK nations, with a focus on making the UK the safest place in the world to have a baby.

We’re also calling for a clear commitment to eliminating differences in rates of baby loss between different groups, where we also appear to be moving backwards.

For example, in 2021, the gap in stillbirth rates between babies of Black and White ethnicities was the highest in 5 years.

In addition, our priorities document calls for:

  • A fully funded workforce to end staffing shortages that are affecting the delivery of safe maternity care
  • Funding to provide the best possible support and care throughout pregnancy and baby loss
  • A comprehensive national approach to ensuring safe maternity and neonatal care, instead of supporting only individual services which are deemed to be ‘outliers’.

Kate Davies, Research, Policy and Information Director of Tommy's, said: 

“There is so much more we can do across the UK to make pregnancy and birth safe for all women and birthing people.

“In some areas, progress towards this goal has stalled and in others, outcomes appear to be getting worse.

“That failure is costing lives, despite the dedication and commitment of so many clinicians, researchers and healthcare teams working across maternity and neonatal services.

“That’s why the next government must put this issue at the top of its agenda, committing the necessary resources and support to drive forward improvements as quickly as possible throughout the UK.”