A SHROPSHIRE lawyer specialising in birth injury with clients in Oswestry claims says far too many women are still not receiving the maternity care they deserve.

Laura Weir, associate solicitor in Lanyon Bowdler’s clinical negligence team, said that while she recognised the role played by ongoing pressures on resources, efforts should be made to improve the quality of care being given.

Laura, who supervises the firm’s specialist Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital (SaTH) maternity claims team, was commenting on the findings of the Care Quality Commission published this month on the latest national maternity survey.

The survey was designed to find out what people using maternity services in 2022 felt about the care they received while pregnant, during labour and delivery, and once at home in the weeks following birth.

She said: “The survey of more than 20,900 women who gave birth in February 2022 shows there has been a decline in positive responses, notably in the number of women able to get help from staff when they needed it, compared to five years ago.

“It also reveals a decline in the number of women who felt they were always treated with kindness and understanding, a drop in the number of women who felt they were always spoken to in a way they could understand during labour and birth, and a decline in the number of women who felt their partner was able to stay with them as much as they wanted.

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“Improvement in mental health support is reflected in the data, but it is clear there is still a long way to go with a quarter of women not asked about their mental health during their antenatal check-ups.”

She added: “While it is encouraging to see that overall satisfaction remained high and the improvement in mental health support is definitely a step in the right direction, it is clear that far too many women are not receiving the care they deserve.

“We can all recognise that resource pressures play a key role in the level of service that can be provided but work can still be done to improve the quality of care given.

“I welcome the work of the CQC in amplifying the voices of women accessing maternity care, and hope that the recommendations made nationally in recent maternity inquiries can help reverse the downward trend identified in this survey.”

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