Calls for consistent care for expectant South Yorkshire mums who have already lost a baby
A charity wants women to have the same maternity team before, during and after birth
It's claimed South Yorkshire women, who've suffered the heartbreak of losing a child, need more consistent care for future pregnancies.
A campaign's been launched for them to get the same maternity team throughout the whole process of having another child - before, during and after the birth.
Stats show so-called 'continuity of care' makes women 16% less likely to lose their baby.
Laura Cowan from Sheffield had a baby just a year after losing her daughter. She says it's really scary going into another pregnancy:
"I was absolutely terrified. When my first daughter died it was an unexplained stillbirth at full term. My subsequent pregnancy was only a year later - the hospital put in addditional scans for me, my midwife had been there at the delivery of my daughter Isabelle.
"It's very frightening. You want to know if there was a medical reason for it. You want the support and intervention to stop that happening again. If it's an unexplained bereavement, it's mainly just making sure the medical professionals know your background and are therefore sensitive to it."
Laura now chairs the Sheffield branch of Sands.
She tells us when she was pregnant again after losing her daughter she got great support - but not everyone is so lucky:
"It did help a lot - it was mainly the continuation of the people so I knew they knew my background and I knew that I could talk to them. Or if I was having anxieties about things that maybe they would usually see as just being a nervous mother, that they understood that and I felt confident to speak to them about it."
Sands new campaign #AlwaysThere is calling for continuity of carer for all womeen
Chief Executive Clea Harmer said:
“Our Always There campaign aims to save lives and improve care by ensuring all women who are pregnant following loss can choose to have the same maternity team who are always there to care for them and their baby.
“For any pregnant mother, having familiar faces caring for her can help develop a vital relationship of trust and this is particularly important for those who are pregnant following loss. When a single midwife or team of midwives cares for a woman and her family, there is more opportunity to hear and understand their individual needs and concerns.
“NHS England has committed to providing Continuity of Carer but we are concerned that progress in rolling this out has been slow. We know this has been in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic and that a barrier to achieving Continuity of Carer for all women in England is lack of resource and staff to deliver it - the NHS is already short of around 2,000 midwives.
“As services recover from COVID-19, the transition to a midwifery-led Continuity of Carer model must be properly resourced and supported, so every woman who is pregnant following a previous loss has the same team who are always there for them throughout their maternity experience. The latest additional annual funding of £95m for NHS maternity services is the perfect opportunity to make this happen.”