Responding to the news that the national Service Development Funding (SDF) for maternity services will be cut from £95m in 2024-25 to just £2m in 2025-26, Naomi Delap, Director of national charity Birth Companions, commented:
"This isn't just a cut, it's a complete withdrawal of the money dedicated to improving the safety of maternity care, and reducing the shameful inequalities experienced by Black, Asian and other racially marginalised women and babies, migrant women, and those women living in the most deprived areas of the country. It is a withdrawal of support for pregnant women, new mothers and their babies at a time when their care is already often shockingly compromised.
"Women in the poorest areas of the UK are twice as likely to die in pregnancy, birth and the postnatal year compared to those in the most affluent postcodes. Black women are still nearly three times more likely to die while pregnant or postnatal than white women, and twice as likely to experience stillbirth.
"Our maternity services have been unable, despite the best efforts of so many midwives, obstetricians and other professionals, to provide women with the care they need and deserve. That failure has been, and will continue to be, felt most acutely by those women we see every day in our own services; women who have no birth partner, those who don't speak or understand English, those who are navigating their pregnancies amidst domestic abuse, insecure housing, and poverty. This money was meant to help make things better for those women and ensure their babies have the best possible start in life. Its withdrawal is impossible to comprehend, and the long-term costs will be human, as well as financial."
