The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) responds to two MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Confidential Enquiry reports, comparing the care of Asian, Black and White women who have experienced a stillbirth or neonatal death, published today.
Dr Ranee Thakar, President of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said:
“Every woman deserves safe, personalised and compassionate care throughout their pregnancy. These reports are important, as they clearly identify issues in antenatal care affected many women included in the review, across all ethnicities. The reviews also show that improvements in care may have made a difference to the outcomes for Asian, Black and White women, and their babies.
“It is concerning to see variation in Black and Asian women being offered, and taking up, important interventions such as chromosomal screening, gestational diabetes testing and vitamin D supplementation. This further highlights the importance of ensuring women’s individual risk factors, and their language and information needs, are better considered.
“Supporting personalised, safe and compassionate maternity care is an absolute priority for the College, and we will now carefully consider the recommendations in these reports, so that we can take these forward through our work as educators, in our clinical guidance and our quality improvement programmes.
“We know that maternity teams are working tirelessly at a time of unprecedented demand, with many teams understaffed and impacted by high vacancy rates. These pressures are undoubtedly impacting the care that some women and their families receive. It is crucial that the Government commits to sufficient, long-term NHS investment for staff recruitment, retention and training, which underpins safe and compassionate care for patients.
“We also continue to call for a cross-government strategy to reduce health inequalities, connecting every department to tackle health disparities”.
Further information
- Read about the RCOG maternity safety programme