In 2021-22, the Maternity Consortium undertook a project to understand the experiences of women and birthing people in accessing maternity services and any barriers they may have faced in receiving the care they need.

In this video, parents share their maternity care experiences, highlighting poor communication, lack of compassion, language barriers, and feeling dismissed or pressured during pregnancy and birth. While many felt unsupported and anxious, some share how empathy and small acts of care can make a huge difference.

We encourage the use of the findings and resources from this project in meetings, training and in the development and delivery of Local Maternity and Neonatal Systems’ Equity and Equality plans.

More information on the project, including the findings from our survey, focus groups and interviews can be found on the FutureNHS Maternity Local Transformation Hub here: https://future.nhs.uk/LocalTransforma…

We would like to thank all of the families who participated in this project for their time, bravery and honesty in sharing their experiences.