Our maternity wards ARE a disgrace. Mothers are dying and getting injured at record rates. So stop bashing mothers who have just lost a child with lame platitudes

The state of England’s maternity care is a ’cause of national shame’, Health Secretary Wes Streeting admitted last month.

As a journalist who has been reporting on the alarming situation for years, I completely agree.

Successive reports have highlighted deep-seated problems that put mothers, babies and staff at risk. One of the most recent, by the Care Quality Commission, warned that avoidable harm was so widespread that it was in danger of being ‘normalised’.

I have spoken to dozens of women and their partners who have been affected by shortcomings in maternity care. I have heard devastating stories of lasting trauma, injuries and deaths that have frustrated and angered me to my core.

Even more so because it is often caused by the same problems: not listening to women’s concerns, a lack of properly trained staff, poor communication between medical teams and pressure to free up hospital beds.

Katie Fowler, whose baby died as a result of NHS blunders, received a rejection from Mr Streeting when she wrote and asked to meet

We have a shortage of 2,500 midwives. Two-thirds of maternity wards are officially not safe enough. Maternal mortality is at its highest level in twenty years. Yes, Wes, it’s an embarrassing situation. What will you do about this, as our new Minister of Health? At this point it is far from clear.

In June, Mr Streeting described how shortcomings in maternity care left him with “fear in my stomach” – and promised that if he became a minister he would meet affected families and listen to their concerns. I was happy that we would finally see positive action. But were they just empty promises?

Last week I reported how a grieving mother, Katie Fowler, whose baby died as a result of NHS blunders, was waved away by Mr Streeting when she wrote and asked to meet.

She and her husband Rob Miller are among eight families whose children died in the same hospital. Instead of acknowledging the request, his department sent her an insultingly careless cut-and-paste response.

Of all the shortcomings in maternity care I have reported on, Katie’s is one of the most glaring.

She almost died during childbirth in January 2022 after midwives relying on telephone assessments dismissed her concerns as a panic attack. She even suffered massive internal bleeding and collapsed on the way to the hospital.

Her daughter, Abigail Fowler Miller, was delivered by emergency caesarean section in a public foyer. She died about 48 hours later in her parents’ arms.

Their story is a horrific example of the worst-case scenario – but it is these examples that Mr Streeting needs to hear to understand how dangerous systemic failings in maternity care can be. But in response to Katie’s letter detailing their situation, it was an unnamed ‘correspondence officer’ who was tasked with debunking a series of lame platitudes.

The state of England’s maternity care is a ’cause of national shame’, Health Secretary Wes Streeting admitted last month. Pictured with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer

I have seen and analyzed the letter, which begins by offering ‘sincere condolences’.

It continues: “Childbirth should not be something women fear or look back on with trauma,” seemingly oblivious to how insensitive it is to say this to a woman whose baby was cut from her body in a public lobby in a panicked attempt to save her. both their lives.

But it wasn’t just insensitive, or even rude – shockingly, it stemmed from a media statement from Wes Streeting last month, the very same one in which he had mentioned ‘national shame’.

The letter goes on to tell Katie that infant loss certificates are now available for pregnancies ending before 24 weeks, to “help all parents manage the difficult time of loss” – words taken from a press release issued in February under the previous Tory was issued. Health Minister Victoria Atkins.

While this plan is a positive step forward in miscarriage care, it feels insensitive to propose it to a mother whose only child died under such shocking – and avoidable – circumstances.

“The government recognizes that there are serious problems with maternity care and is keen to learn from the findings of recent studies,” the letter adds.

These exact words were used by Health Minister Karin Smyth in August when responding to a parliamentary question on an unrelated matter.

“I hope this answer is helpful,” it concludes. Katie is right to feel offended. “Rude and impersonal,” is how she described it.

Last week, Nisha Sharma, a lawyer for Slater and Gordon who represents Katie’s family and several similar cases, called out Mr Streeting for not meeting the victims. ‘I would insist [him] to look these families in the eyes and see their pain,” she said.

She’s right. To understand a problem, you have to listen to the people in the middle of it.

I have witnessed parents holding small boxes containing their child’s ashes. I’ve heard the tremor in a father’s voice as he remembers pleading with doctors to keep his dying baby on a ventilator until his comatose wife could be woken up to meet her.

I have also spoken publicly about my own experience of terrible care, when the maternity staff failed to notice that my pelvis had broken during delivery. Although I was in pain and unable to sit up, lie flat or take a step without excruciating pain, I was sent home to care for my baby without diagnosis or treatment. It took me more than three years to recover.

Katie Flowler and her husband Rob Miller are among eight families whose children died in the same hospital

Mr. Streeting, you need to hear all of this too or you won’t really understand how broken this system is. And you need to talk to midwives to find out how unsafe working conditions are driving talented workers to quit for fear that the next preventable injury or death will occur on their shift.

Maternity care has not entered its current crisis under Mr Streeting’s watch, but it will only get worse until he stops soundbiting and listens.

He needs to look these people in the eyes and feel their sadness, anger and frustration because this keeps happening. If he doesn’t, it’s all too easy to dismiss the injured mother, the dead baby, or the midwife quit after one too many dangerously understaffed shifts as statistics.

Tellingly, Katie Fowler heard nothing more from Mr Streeting’s department until I spoke to the press office last week. Then she was suddenly approached by one of his team members. He has now promised to meet her, and I hope he does.

Firing families with generic cut-and-paste letters is simply not good enough – and it certainly won’t prevent more mothers and babies from dying.