Report reveals women’s experiences of maternity services across England
More than 17,500 women who gave birth last February across 129 NHS trusts have shared their experiences of care in the latest Maternity Services Survey from the Care Quality Commission.
Overall, women reported positive experiences for many areas of their maternity care in 2018, including:
- being asked how they feel emotionally during antenatal care
- feeling listened to by midwives during antenatal check-ups
- being spoken to in a way they understood during labour and birth
- having confidence and trust in the staff caring for them
- being treated with respect and dignity
- their partner (or someone else close to them) being involved during labour and birth.
However, while there had been small improvements across most questions from 2013 to 2017, very few questions showed this trend continuing between 2017 and 2018, with some questions showing a decline.
This includes women’s experiences of:
- being given enough information about emotional changes which may be experienced after giving birth
- being visited by a midwife at home after giving birth
- seeing a midwife often enough at home after giving birth
- staff awareness of the mother and baby’s medical history
- being given enough information about their physical recovery after giving birth.
The full national statistical report, along with data for individual trusts, can be seen on the CQC website.
