'Women are going into childbirth scared', maternity expert says as new review blasts 'embedded systemic failures'

An expert in maternity care has told GB News women across the country are “going into childbirth scared.”

Mari-Carmen Sanchez-Morris is a former Nurse in the NHS and the founder of Matresa, a platform currently in development which aims to provide clinical-grade material health services, early screening and diagnostics.

Her comments come after a review into the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust found hundreds of mothers and babies suffered potentially avoidable harm or died due to "longstanding and deeply embedded systemic failures.”

The inquiry which has seen more 2,500 families and over 800 staff take part found the Trust knew there were serious issues in its maternity department going back to as early as 2007, but says it failed to take action to prevent more deaths.

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A "bullying and toxic culture" existed at the trust over multiple years and women repeatedly described feeling “unheard”, “inadequately informed”, and “unsupported” when expressing anxiety, particularly in relation to reduced foetal movements or emerging medical complications.

Ms Sanchez-Morris told GB News, mothers don’t feel like they can challenge the service.

She said: “When the woman has a baby, it's the most important time in their life and many women are going into childbirth scared, which is really, really sad.

“There is a there is a feeling around not being listened to. In mums that I speak to all the time, it's a common theme.

“You know your own body, and no question should be a silly question. A mother should feel confident and safe that she can raise her concerns and not feel that she's being a hinder.

“You should be able to go into that birth feeling confident that you've got the expertise, and you know if you feel safe to give birth to your child, and that's not that's not the case anymore, which is very, very sad.”

In the Nottingham University Hospitals Trust, the Ockenden Inquiry found that staff reported "a culture of organisational denial" over years, where poor outcomes "were regularly dismissed as 'known complications.

Combined with staff shortages and "operational pressures", all areas of maternity were affected. Staff also described routinely working "beyond safe capacity".

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Ms Sanchez-Morris says so many of the systems used to track the care of mother and baby are “fragmented”.

She told GB News: “The systems are so fragmented, you've got GPs that use this system, you've got midwives that use this system, different trusts using different systems. It's like Chinese whispers.

“I remember that when I was back nursing, the communication was always the thing that let it down, and that's a really quite a thing that can't happen, that's where things fall through the gaps.

“Midwives are trying to do the best job that they can do with the little resources that they have and the little staffing that they have.

“There is a maternity safety budget that was £95 million, that was ring fenced, and last year it was slashed to £2 million, that money was put aside for maternity safety.

In light of this review and complaints of maternity services across the UK, Ms Sanchez-Morris founded and has begun the first stages of a new app, called Matresa.

Now looking for further investment, once complete it will be presented to the NHS and available for women to download as a way to improve maternity care and identify problems so they can be treated early.

She said: “So what we're working on is that continuous journey, looking at what's going on with the mother from pregnancy to the first two years of that mother's life, of the baby's life as well, and ensuring that the mother has got that access to the health that she healthcare that she needs at the right time in order to make these better changes.

“Nobody is actually collecting all of this data. We need to understand, you know, at what point does a mother really need the help? And we need to get better at looking at what those early signs are.

“The findings around the 6-to-8-week postnatal check, that is the one appointment that a mother gets postnatal, yet the baby gets multiple checks. This is the only check her mother gets, and sometimes it's on the phone, and a lot of the time it's combined with the baby's checks and it's a quick how are you? Off you go.

“That is such a crucial appointment, not just for the mother, but also those companies where the mother is returning back to work.

“If we're not asking the right questions at that time, but also following on, I think that the 6-to-8-week check should be 6-to-8 weeks, it should be four months, and six months postpartum, and it should just focus on the mother's needs.”

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