Motion no: 29
Conference, more than a decade has now passed since the Department of Health1 started a review that led to the publication of its Strategy for Maternity Care in Northern Ireland 2012-2018.
That strategy helped deliver many improvements in maternity care across Northern Ireland. However, nearly 4 years have now passed since the strategy came to an end. We need a new, refreshed strategy for the decade ahead.
With around 22,071 births in Northern Ireland in 20212, maternity care is a service that it is vital to get right. There are several areas that should form the focus for a new maternity strategy.
Attention must be paid to the significant challenges faced by the midwifery workforce. Work which has commenced as part of the Delivering Care policy framework must inform a new maternity strategy with concrete recommendations for maternity workforce needs now and in the long term.
There is a need to consider how best to respond to the needs of women accessing maternity services. The increasing health and social complexity experienced by women, for example, demands different things from maternity services than has been the case in the past. Women’s need for personalized care provided in Midwife Led environments or through Midwifery Continuity of Care schemes need to be factored into future plans. Any new strategy must ensure that maternity services continue to make a significant contribution to improved public health.
Finally, recent reports into the safety of maternity care in other parts of the UK, such as the Ockenden review into failings at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, must inform any review of services in Northern Ireland.
The need for a renewed maternity strategy for Northern Ireland, informed by a thorough review of services, grows more urgent with every passing week and month. A new maternity strategy is the best way to ensure the development of services that are responsive, and evidence based and provide safe, sustainable quality care to women and their families. Fundamental to how we develop any strategy is recognizing the need for transformational change that ensures women are at the centre of the system, not trying to navigate a system that doesn’t meet their needs.
Women and their families deserve a service that reflects the needs of the population, challenges health inequalities and ensures that Northern Irelands next generation is healthier than any that has come before.
