MNHQ here: Our survey on your experiences of maternity care

[NicolaDMumsnet]

Hi all,

We thought you might be interested in the results of a survey on maternity care that we carried out recently which was covered in The Times on Sunday. 

When we asked over 1,000 mothers on Mumsnet about the maternity care they had received in the past 5 years, almost a third said they were not given all of the medical care they needed at the birth and 9 per cent said their baby did not get all the necessary care.

A quarter of mothers rated the maternity care they had received during the past five years as “poor”. 

23 per cent believed they or their baby had been put in danger because of the standard of care they received. 

More than a fifth said the care they received was “not kind and caring”.

Almost half of the respondents said they had not been given enough information to make decisions about planning for the birth of their child and a third did not feel sufficiently informed about pain relief during labour.

Too often women feel ignored during their maternity care experience, with almost 60 per cent of respondents saying they did not feel listened to by healthcare professionals. This echoes the findings of a 2019 Mumsnet survey, in which 14% of women said their opinions and decisions when planning for giving birth were overruled and 30% say their decisions and opinions were not sought at all. 

We plan to use this research to push for change to improve maternity care so all mothers feel safe and supported throughout their maternity and postnatal care- so as ever, please do let us know what you think! 

Thanks,
MNHQ.