NHS maternity care: who is looking after the mother?

Valerie Amos highlights several key points in her preliminary findings of the national investigation into maternity and neonatal care across England.12 These findings accord with our experience of problems reported by mothers of babies needing neonatal intensive care. We hope their needs will be equally emphasised in the final report.Amos rightly observes that women and families are often placed in unsuitable environments after a loss or trauma. When a newborn requires neonatal intensive care, mothers are frequently separated from their baby and moved to a postnatal ward, where they are surrounded by mothers who have their newborns with them. This is distressing and can further impact psychological wellbeing.If the mother is no longer receiving inpatient care, and the baby’s neonatal place of care is far from home, the mother may also struggle to access her local health services. This leads to maternal health and psychological needs being overlooked due to…