Sands & Tommy’s Joint Policy Unit: Saving babies’ lives 2025 (21 May 2025)

Summary

Each year since May 2023 the Sands & Tommy’s Joint Policy Unit have published an annual report setting out the extent of pregnancy and baby deaths across the UK. This year’s report argues that progress made to date falls short of what is needed to stop babies dying every day in the UK, and that unacceptable inequalities in pregnancy and baby loss persist despite continued calls for change. It estimates that at least 2,500 fewer babies – the equivalent of around 100 primary school classrooms - would have died since 2018 if the government had achieved its ambition of halving the 2010 rates of stillbirth, neonatal and maternal deaths in England.

Content

The report draws on the latest data from MBRRACE-UK, which shows that the gap continues to grow between neonatal death rates in the most deprived areas and those in the least deprived areas of the UK. It highlights that the stillbirth rate among babies of Asian ethnicity has risen sharply, and Black babies are still twice as likely as White babies to be stillborn.

It includes 10 key actions for policymakers

1. Renew commitments to save babies’ lives. Specifically, a stillbirth rate of 2.0 stillbirths, and a neonatal mortality rate of 0.5 neonatal deaths for babies born at 24 weeks’ gestation and over (per 1,000 live births). A preterm birth rate of 6.0%. 
2. Count miscarriages in the UK. The number and rate of miscarriages are not reported across the UK or for any individual nation. All UK governments should set up routine data collection on miscarriage.
3. Take coordinated and meaningful action to eliminate inequalities. There are a range of policy areas where specific action is needed, including: understanding whether current efforts to reduce inequalities are working, and a comprehensive review of translation and interpreting services in maternity and neonatal care. 
4. Strengthen national leadership to make progress on the safety of maternity and neonatal services. 
5. Clarify the workforce needed to deliver safe care. Future development of the workforce must move away from a binary debate focussed on whether we do or don’t have enough staff and focus on the staffing requirements needed to deliver safe care, in line with nationally-agreed standards. 
6. Put the resources needed in place to deliver safe care. More investment is needed to improve the safety and quality of services if the government is going to deliver on its commitments to reduce rates of stillbirth and neonatal death and eliminate inequalities. 
7. Make informed choice a reality. Everyone should receive personalised care, know what they are entitled to, such as their birth choices, and services need the resources and operational capacity to provide this. 
8. Address unwarranted variation in care. Too often babies are dying because of care that is not in line with nationally-agreed standards. We need clarity on how national guidance is applied and clear national standards to improve the consistency of service provision. 
9. Ensure lessons are learned when babies die. The NHS is still not properly learning lessons when babies die or listening to the experiences of bereaved families to improve care in the future. There must be more robust oversight of the implementation of actions that are identified by reviews and investigations. 
10. Prioritise pregnancy and baby loss in research. This requires a broad range of research topics, the involvement of bereaved parents and communities, and a strong connection with policy and practice.