A Manifesto for Maternity

Maternity

A MANIFESTO FOR MOTHERS AND BABIES IN THE NHS

  1. Increase the maternity tariff. The existing maternity tariff, the money the government allocates for each birth does not pay for sufficient midwives for safe births, let alone for happy births
  2. Bring back bursaries for midwives and nurses
  3. Make full maternity care available to all mothers, no exceptions
  4. Ditch the sweet talking Maternity Review. No personal budgets. No loss of beds. We want a fully funded NHS maternity system, not a choice of private providers.
  5. Respect women’s choices in labour. Listen to the mother.
  6. Home birth, midwife unit or hospital birth, they all need to be in in the NHS with NHS staff fully supervised and in the training loop.
  7. Make obstetric care available in our local hospitals. No four hour journeys for women in labour.
  8. No pressure to give birth at home. Home birth must be a free choice, with full hospital back up available
  9. Full NHS insurance for all NHS home births. No handing over responsibility. No home births on the cheap.
  10. Give women more time with their midwives. More midwives per mother.
  11. No cuts in maternity beds
  12. No woman to be left alone in labour
  13. Help women with breast feeding. Mums need support after birth too. Breast feeding is far too low in UK, yet women want to breast feed for their babies.
  14. Support mums in the early days with baby.
  15. Invest in the start of life
  16. Support maternal mental health
  17. Train more paediatric doctors and nurses.
  18. Research reasons for premature birth
  19. Improve pediatic intensive care
  20. Staff our labour wards so no forced emergency closures. Plan staffing 8 months in advance. It’s kinda natural
  21. Nationalise the private maternity companies taking NHS contracts
  22. Fund research into still births, and birth injuries
  23. Improve procedures for induction of labour
  24. Fully fund neo natal intensive care
  25. Recruit more midwives, nurses and doctors,neo natal intensive care nurses and related staff.
  26. Ditch the STPs and their cuts
  27. Keep all our EU staff and make them very welcome
  28. Fund improved ambulance services and train all staff including dispatchers around birth issues.
  29. Fight maternal and child poverty

For our babies, for our mothers, for our sisters, for our lovers

By Save Liverpool Women’s Hospital