National maternity review published - give women a choice

The Cumberlege report into safer maternity care was published on Tuesday and recommends that all women should be offered the choice to give birth where they want, with the support of the same midwife throughout pregnancy, labour and the early weeks of motherhood.

The national maternity review recommends that women should each have a "personal maternity care budget" – NHS money to be spent within the NHS –  to be spent as the mother chooses – whether they give birth in a midwife-run unit, a hospital or at home.

"Uncomplicated" births cost the NHS around £3,000. A woman’s choice as to where and how she wants to give birth will determine how that money is spent, giving her a greater say than ever before in her care the report suggests.

The independent review, chaired by Baroness Julia Cumberlege, was commissioned by NHS England after repeated findings that maternity services were not as safe as they should be or are elsewhere in the developed world. They also do not always give women the best possible experience of childbirth. The review follows an investigation into the dysfunctional maternity unit at Furness hospital, part of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS foundation trust. A report in March last year found that failures in care may have played a part in the deaths of three mothers and 16 babies.

The Cumberlege review finds, as did the Morecambe Bay investigation, that obstetricians and midwives are not always working as a team. It recommends that they should train together, and should develop a better working relationship with greater understanding and respect for each other’s work.