Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins responded to the recommendations. Atkins announced her full support for the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Birth Trauma’s headline call, the development of a comprehensive cross-government national maternity strategy – starting with prioritising birth trauma as part of this year’s Women’s Health Strategy.

Atkins also announced the following:

• • NHS England will co-produce new decision-making tools with new mothers to help them make informed choices about how to give birth, what interventions could happen, and what pain relief they should be offered. These will be made available in a range of languages and formats to make sure that they can be tailored to different settings and to different local populations.

• • The Government has introduced stand-alone GP appointments six-to-eight weeks after giving birth, to ask crucial questions about ‘whether mum is okay’, while keeping separate checks for her baby.

• • On physical injuries, the NHS will roll out improved perinatal pelvic health services, including guidance to better support women who experience serious tears and to prevent these from happening in the first place.

• • NHS is also rolling out new maternal mental health services for new mums, which are already available in all but three local health systems. To end the postcode lottery, the plan is to achieve full coverage by the end of the financial year.

• • Commission the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to do new research into the economic impact of birth trauma, including how this affects women returning to work. 

This is an incredible result for the cross-party campaign to improve postnatal after-care for mums in the UK.

It will be interesting to see what approaches are adopted in NSW. Sadly, birth trauma hasn’t received any acknowledgement in the newly released Australian budget despite the NSW Inquiry receiving over 4000 submissions. Many more parents in our community are asking us whether there will be inquiries in other states. 

Congratulations to our colleagues in the UK. It was such a pleasure to meet in person the wonderful people with whom I have collaborated over the years, including Kim Thomas, the CEO of the UK Birth Trauma Association, who led the Special Advisory Group that helped shape the public inquiry alongside Nikki Wilson from Make Birth Better, The Masic Foundation, and the Maternal Mental Health Alliance. 

None of this would have been possible without Theo Clarke MP, whose own experience with birth injuries led the politician to launch an inquiry into the nation’s maternity care. You can catch Theo here making sure the birth trauma inquiry is discussed at Prime Minister’s Questions. 

Read the full report here.

Remember that we are all here together, and collectively, WE CAN make a difference.