Tackling the Maternity Crisis

Britain should be the safest country in the world to have a baby. Yet today, our maternity services are facing a catastrophic crisis. Maternal deaths in the UK are higher than at any point in the last decade, and according to the Care Quality Commission, 65% of maternity units are simply not safe to give birth in.

From Shrewsbury and Telford to Nottingham, Leeds, and Sussex, endless investigations have uncovered the same devastating story: severe shortages of senior doctors and midwives, crumbling hospital wards, and a dangerous culture where serious harm is becoming normalised. Meanwhile, the Labour Government’s response has been to cut ring-fenced Maternity Service Development Funding from £95 million down to just £2 million, leaving complex pregnancies, bereavement care, and staff training severely undermined.

No mother should face trauma, injury, or child loss due to unsafe healthcare. Today, Liberal Democrat members passed a bold national plan to end the maternity emergency, fix crumbling wards, and guarantee world-class, safe care for every mother and baby.

Our new policy calls on the Government to:

• Guarantee Safe Staffing: Ensure a consultant obstetrician is present on every labour ward 24/7, guarantee 1-to-1 midwifery care for every woman in labour, and recruit an extra 300 consultant midwives.
   
• Overhaul Crumbling Wards: Launch a dedicated capital investment programme to repair the 42% of units in need of major renovation, start immediate repairs on the 7% at risk of imminent breakdown, and deliver dedicated bereavement suites in every hospital.
   
• Appoint a National Maternity Commissioner: Create an independent statutory Commissioner to oversee standards of care and systematically monitor the implementation of recommendations from major reviews like Ockenden.
   
• Restore Ring-Fenced Funding: Immediately reinstate the £95 million Maternity Service Development Funding cut by Labour to support mothers with complex pregnancies.
   
• Mandate Protected Training: Guarantee 52 hours of salaried annual training for midwives and all maternity staff, focusing on emergency procedures, fetal monitoring, and leadership culture.
   
• Tackle Disparities in Care: Introduce mandatory training to identify risks in Black and Asian mothers - such as identifying cyanosis or jaundice on darker skin tones - and set a cross-government strategy to eliminate maternal health inequality.
   
• Record All Miscarriages: Require all miscarriages to be officially recorded to uncover hidden suffering, set national targets, and guarantee mental health referrals after every miscarriage, not just after three.

Failing to act to fix maternity care is not just a moral tragedy - it is a financial catastrophe, with clinical negligence payments in maternity costing the NHS £1.3 billion every single year. We cannot afford more delay, more empty reviews, or more broken promises.

The Liberal Democrats are standing up for mothers, babies, and staff. It’s time to rebuild our maternity services so every family gets the safe, compassionate, and high-quality care they deserve.