Louise Thompson Is Right To Call For A Maternity Commissioner. It’s The Least Mums Deserve

It was completely heartbreaking to learn more about Louise Thompson’s horrific birth experience this week, but what is even more shocking is the fact that so many other women across the UK have experienced similar.

The former Made In Chelsea star has experienced ongoing health issues since her traumatic birth in 2021, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

She has bravely shared her story to raise awareness of the plight of many mothers – an estimated 30,000 women are impacted by birth trauma every year.

As part of her campaign, she has launched a petition to appoint a Maternity Commissioner in the UK to spearhead the improvement of maternity care for mums and babies. At the time of writing, it had almost 130,000 signatures. 

The government says there are “no current plans to appoint a Maternity Commissioner”, but this role – someone who stands up for those being failed by the system – is desperately needed. 

We have now seen countless reports exposing just how dire the state of maternity care really is – from learning that since 2019 the NHS has faced an estimated £27billion bill for maternity care failures, to hearing that over 30,000 women each year feel traumatised after giving birth, it is clear that maternity care is not improving and is, in fact, continuing to deteriorate.

Now, we have a real opportunity to create meaningful change.

If a Maternity Commissioner were to be introduced, this would mean that someone would finally be responsible for overseeing the safety of maternity care.

More importantly, it would mean that there would be someone who could be held accountable for implementing the more than 750 recommendations made over the past decade to improve maternity and neonatal care in England.

It is devastating to see that the Care Quality Commission has deemed over 49% of maternity units in the UK as either requiring improvement or inadequate.

While fewer babies are being born, statistics show more women in the UK are dying during pregnancy or soon after giving birth since 2015. Black women are three times more likely to die during, or in the first year after, pregnancy than white women, and there is a disparity between stillbirth rates in Black babies and those of white ethnicities.

This is not good enough. Birthing parents deserve better. 

A Maternity Commissioner could finally begin to tackle this long list of issues by providing dedicated, high-level accountability to drive national strategy, address persistent safety failures, and reduce disparities in care.

The data we are most concerned about at Carea, and are actively trying to address through our service offerings, relates to the ongoing failings around maternal mental health.

A recent study by the non-profit Make Mothers Matter found that almost half of all women in the UK experience anxiety or depression during the postnatal period. 

Given the grim state of physical care currently being delivered within maternity services, it is sadly unsurprising that perinatal mental health has taken such a devastating back seat.

Women are left stranded in a system where there is often no clear person to turn to to discuss mental health concerns during pregnancy or postpartum. Too many are made to feel as though they should simply get on with things or that they are making a fuss for not being back to 100% by their six-week check-up mark.

The evidence is clear that urgent and meaningful change is needed. While there are undeniably many incredible midwives and doctors doing their absolute best across the UK, the NHS has been stretched thin for years, and women are too often the ones paying the price.

The biggest shift the system must make is learning to care for women in a way that puts their individual needs and wishes first, rather than relying solely on standardised protocols that can dismiss concerns or ethical differences in an effort to reduce negligence claims and lawsuits.

Women’s voices need to be heard and respected, especially during one of the most physically and emotionally vulnerable periods in a woman’s life – pregnancy, birth and the postpartum phase.

Anastasia Shubareva-Epshtein is the founder and CEO of Carea, a pregnancy and postnatal wellbeing platform supporting women’s physical and mental health before, during and after pregnancy.