The all party parliamentary group on maternity services, which was launched at the House of Commons last week, has been set up to improve maternity services and to raise the awareness of the role that maternity services can play in improving public health. We want to see a national service framework for maternity services in place in the next parliament so that good practice is shared across the country and to ensure that care in maternity is evidence based. At the moment many women don't get all the support they need in childbirth or in pre and post-natal care, whilst others experience unnecessary medical interventions. Our breastfeeding rate is one of the lowest in Europe, yet breastfeeding has positive health consequences for women and babies.
Breastfed babies are half as likely to develop respiratory illness in their first seven years.
Yet women do not get all the support they need to help them breastfeed - a recent survey showed one quarter of women receiving conflicting advice on breastfeeding. A third area of concern is post-natal support. Studies in America show that proper post-natal support reduces child abuse later. And studies in Britain have shown that better support can reduce post-natal depression. Currently there are serious shortages of midwives in many parts of the country.