Every day, maternity services support women and their families through pregnancy and childbirth.
In the UK the vast majority of women using maternity services have good outcomes and report a positive experience of care. However, maternity care can be complex and unfortunately, distressing and harmful outcomes do occur. Every mother or baby death or injury is a tragedy.
The College plays an important role in supporting the delivery of safe, high quality maternity care, and to continually raise the standards of professional practice globally, which includes improving maternity safety as a priority. Whilst the College is not able to intervene in disputes between employers and employees over behaviours, nor is it a regulator, the College is committed to improving safety.
The College supports maternity safety within the system through its role as an educator: developing the curriculum, raising standards of care through the development of clinical guidance, supporting the career development of clinicians through exams, professional development courses and events, and support services for its members. The College also delivers research and quality improvement programmes that contribute to improvements in maternity safety and as part of its influencing and advocacy activity, ensures system wide improvements are identified and delivered.
Recommendations from recent public inquiries into maternity care have identified clear areas for essential improvement. All parts of the system, who play a role in the delivery of maternity care have taken action to examine their activities to make sure they are focused in the right areas and respond to the pressures on the system and the needs of women and families.
Using a robust methodology and under the leadership of the RCOG Maternity Safety working group, the College has reviewed all of the ways it supports the delivery of improved maternity care.
As part of the review the College also considered the areas where it could build on the breadth of work already being delivered, alongside its past and existing maternity safety programmes, education, guidance, training and advocacy work, to develop new initiatives to drive improvements in maternity safety.
In this section
Adequate staffing levels have been recognised as an important determinant of patient safety. Staff with the right skill set and competency are vital. Key guidance documents on safe staffing including the use of locums have been developed
Effective team working enables clinicians to work together, be flexible and adaptable, communicate professionally and be able to solve any concerns together, thereby taking a collegiate approach to working towards a common goal
High levels of staff wellbeing is essential for cultivating a healthy and motivated workforce that aids the development of a positive workplace culture. This in turn reinforces the need for wellbeing support structures to be in place
Good Leadership skills are the vital components that allow for a doctor to role model excellent professional behaviour and support their colleagues to develop as good leaders themselves
Clinicians must champion the healthcare needs of all people from all groups and provide patient centred care that is tailored to the individual’s needs and choice. It also promotes non-discriminatory practice
Women and their families must be treated with care and compassion at all times, be involved in decisions about their care and be listened to whilst taking into account any specific needs they may have
Clinicians must be competent in assessing, recognising and managing their patients. Developing doctors and specialists with a wide-ranging set of knowledge, professional and technical skills forms the basis of their core competency in being a doctor.
Clinicians must respect the cultural diversity of women, their individual backgrounds including previous health concerns, especially in circumstances that may have an impact on engagement and care
To support the College’s work on maternity safety, we want to hear our members’ views on how the wider system can be improved. Find out how you can get involved with this activity.
