DEATHS of women during or shortly after pregnancy and babies within 28 days of birth have increased for the first time in a decade, new research shows.
The Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London said its analysis of official data “provides cause for concern.”
It found that neonatal deaths (babies born at 20 weeks or later who die within 28 days) and maternal deaths (women who die during pregnancy or within six weeks due to pregnancy-related issues) had increased and are continuing to rise.
Institute co-director Lord Darzi, who recently led a review into the NHS, said: “The deterioration in maternity care, in particular, requires immediate action.
“Our analysis highlights a troubling increase in neonatal and maternal deaths, with black women disproportionately affected.”
Between 2013 and 2020 the neonatal death rate dropped by 17 per cent, from 1.7 to 1.3 per 1,000 live births, but rose by 15.4 per cent to 1.5 per 1,000 in 2022, the report found.
Maternal deaths remained steady from 2011–2013 to 2017–2019 but increased significantly by 52.3 per cent, from 8.8 to 13.4 per 100,000, between 2017–2019 and 2020–2022.
These issues come alongside “growing concerns about access to urgent care and the spiralling costs of unsafe care,” the report said.
The report also highlighted that the impacts of unsafe care are unevenly distributed, with greater effects in the north than the south.
Royal College of Midwives (RCM) executive director for midwifery Birte Harlev-Lam said: “We cannot simply wring our hands and shake our heads at the tragedy of lives lost.
“We must act now and improve the maternity outcomes for all women and their babies.
“Over the past decade we have read multiple reports of incidents in maternity services.
“There are recurring themes in these reports, too few staff with the right training, too little time to care for and listen to women, and crumbling infrastructure that gets in the way of good care.
“Despite these recurrent themes, nothing has fundamentally changed.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said it is committed to “driving up standards in healthcare” and will work with NHS England to improve training and support available.
Keep Our NHS Public co-chairman Dr Tony O’Sullivan said: “If women in childbirth and their newborn babies cannot be guaranteed safe care, in the face of massive accumulation of wealth in the UK by corporations and billionaires, then we know the priorities are absolutely wrong.
“The slide backwards in the mortality of women and infants is shocking enough. For black and brown women the risk of losing their life is 3-4 times worse and for their babies close to double.
“There is no doubt that there is a national emergency in the NHS.
“The government must call that out and raise the emergency funding and capacity to meet this systemic crisis exposed in maternity care, emergency departments, mental health, primary and social care.”