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According to a new study, mothers at risk of premature birth could be identified as soon as 10 weeks into their pregnancy. The study, conducted by King's College London and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, found that by looking for specific bacteria in the in a pregnant woman’s cervicovaginal fluid, it could reveal warning signs for premature birth, meaning inflammation can be found and treated early to protect mothers and babies. Study author Andrew Shennan OBE, who is Professor of obstetrics at King’s College London, explained: “Premature birth is very hard to predict, so doctors have to err on the side of caution and mothers deemed to be at risk often don’t actually have their babies early, putting undue strain on everyone involved. My team has developed preterm birth prediction tools that are very accurate later in pregnancy, like fetal fibronectin tests – but at that stage, you can only manage the risks, not stop it from happening. The sooner we can find out who’s at risk, the more we can do to keep mothers and babies safe.” Read full story. Source: The Independent, 23 August 2021

1,500 safety recommendations have been made to NHS trusts a year after hundreds of babies were left brain damaged and dozens of mothers and infants died. Safety watchdog Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) has outlined key themes from 760 investigations of maternity incidents, taking over investigations for NHS trusts in 2018 after concerns were raised over the poor quality of investigation by trusts and a lack of involvement in families. Sandy Lewis, associate director of maternity said: “The publication of the HSIB maternity programme year review provides crucial details of the work that has been undertaken in the last year. We would like to thank all of those who have worked with us in the past year, sharing their experiences, insights and expertise. Many families have not only told us their stories but have also trusted our investigators to reflect their perspectives and share their experience. Trusts have responded promptly to this insight, this has contributed to improving safer care of mothers, babies and families across the country.” Read full story. Source: The Independent, 16 August 2021

At a virtual event held by The Independent last night, experts agreed maternity services needed to be overhauled. The panel discussion, NHS maternity scandal: Inside a crisis, laid out the facts surrounding the problems around maternity care and concerns around safety amid repeated examples of poor care in multiple cases. Donna Ockenden, a senior midwife who has been leading the inquiry into maternity services at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals explained "I think one of the major issues around maternity services is that we’re not treated in the same way as A&E. I think that people fail to see that actually, maternity is a woman’s A&E department, you can start a shift in any maternity unit, you can plan what you think you’re going to do. But actually you don’t know what is going to come in the front door.” Read full story. Source: The Independent, 12 August 2021

After an unannounced inspection at the Princess Alexandra Hospital Trust in June, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) found an “emergency c-section was being performed without the correct equipment available to monitor the mother”. According to reports, the inspectors stepped in immediately to raise concerns, which was then corrected straight away. In a letter to the trust, the CQC wrote, “Overall, we were concerned that the safety culture in the service was underdeveloped. There were no dedicated maternity safety huddles in line with national guidance. Handovers doubled up as safety huddles. During our observations of handovers, we saw that staff did not discuss safety issues and the format was not safety focused.” Read full story (paywalled). Source: HSJ, 6 August 2021

Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent, England's chief midwife has sent a letter to midwives, obstetricians and GP practices urging them to encourage pregnant women to get double-vaccinated. "Vaccines save lives, and this is another stark reminder that the Covid-19 jab can keep you, your baby and your loved ones, safe and out of hospital." Dunkley-Bent has said and recommends advice on jabs be offered at every opportunity. Read full story. Source: BBC News, 30 July 2021

Midwives working at the Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) Trust have told The Independent that "women are still at a risk of harm". This comes after Nottingham hospitals were investigated after it was found there was a high number of baby deaths and injuries on the maternity ward. However, midwives have revealed to The Independent that there are still not enough resources and support to help women deliver their babies safely. One midwife working in the community told The Independent: “They keep saying ‘We’ve learned our lessons, it’s not like that now’ – but it’s even worse now. It’s worse because we know about it and it’s still bad. Women are still at risk of harm. Even more so in the community.” Read full story. Source: The Independent, 25 July 2021

More than 20 families have said they want a completely independent inquiry into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) NHS Trust. One mother, Hayley Coates has said her baby was delivered with forceps, a fractured skull and was starved of oxygen, suffering major brain injuries after a very difficult labour. An inquest this year found serious failings in the service Hayley received after her baby Kaylan, died of an infection a week later. "I was pushing and pushing and nothing was happening. I kept saying the baby isn't coming and I need to go for a Caesarean, but staff kept saying I was going to have the baby naturally," Hayley has said. NUH chief executive Tracy Taylor has said, "We apologise from the bottom of our hearts to the families who have not received the high level of care they need and deserve, we recognise the effects have been devastating". Read full story. Source: BBC News, 22 July 2021

Health professionals have warned that if Covid-19 rates continue to rise, Maternity services may struggle to keep running. The Royal College of Midwives and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists have said home births have been cancelled amid ambulance shortages. Leah Deutsch, a senior registrar in obstetrics and gynaecology at the Royal Free Hospital in north London, has told The Independent that some women were unable to have their home births during the first and second wave of the pandemic. Read full story. Source: The Independent, 21 July 2021

Now, almost two years after a consultation on inquests into stillbirths was delivered, the government has yet to respond. It has recently been reported by MPs that 1,000 babies die preventable deaths each year due to understaffing and a culture of blame among the maternity ward workforce. However, despite pressure from campaigners and a promise by the government that a response would come in September 2019, it is yet to be published. The Department for Health and Social Care has told Byline Times, “work on analysing the responses to the consultation on coronial investigations of stillbirths has been delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic”. Read full story. Source: Byline Times, 14 July 2021

The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) has warned there may be a risk to pregnant women when next weeks restrictions relax. Experts are warning that infection rates among pregnant women may increase once the restrictions are lifted and encourage them to protect themselves and their families as women who are pregnant are more likely to become severely ill with Covid-19. RCN chief executive Gill Walton, has said: "Along with mask wearing, hand washing and social distancing, vaccination is a vital tool in the fight to protect yourself against this virus. Read full story. Source: BBC News, 15 July 2021

A new independent inquiry has been launched after reports of mother and baby deaths at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust. According to patient safety minister Nadine Dorries, the inquiry will be led externally and will be examining cases going back to 2016. The review has been welcomed by families but they have said they want to be fully involved in the process including setting the terms of reference and making sure it is a truly independent inquiry. Read full story. Source: The Independent, 13 July 2021

Spire Health Care in Bristol and the Mercy Hospital in Missouri have been awarded contacts by the Scottish government to perform surgical mesh removal for Scottish women, with costs for travel and surgery covered by the hospitals, the BBC reports. Each procedure has been estimated to cost between £16,000 and £23,000, with contracts to remove the mesh outside of Scotland expected to start later in the summer. Marian Kenny, 62, from Glasgow has said, "It has given me and lots of other women hope - and that's not something I've had in my life for quite some time." Read full story. Source: BBC News, 12 July 2021

The Care Quality Commission has downgraded another maternity unit over 'blame culture' and concerns over safety. After an inspection was carried out, Salisbury Foundation Trust , which was downgraded from 'good' to 'inadequate' has been told it must make improvements after concerns were raised about safety and leadership of the maternity unit. Head of hospital inspection at the Care Quality Commission, Amanda Williams has said: “Following our recent inspection of Salisbury District Hospital’s maternity services, we found that women and babies using the service received effective care and treatment which met their needs most of the time. But most of the time is not good enough. Read full story. Source: The Independent, 10 July 2021

A year on from the vaginal mesh scandal and ministers have failed to take action. The new health secretary Sajid Javid has been called on to intervene by families, lawyers and campaigners and has been asked to implement recommendations made by the Cumberlege Inquiry. Emma Hardy, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Surgical Mesh Implants has said “Women deserve better than the government’s refusal to implement the Baroness Cumberlege recommendations. The recommendations will not only make life better for those living with mesh complications, but they will also improve patient safety for everyone in the future.” Read full story. Source: The Independent, 08 July 2021

Women deserve better, say campaigners Women have voiced their frustration that a year since Baroness Cumberlege published her scathing First Do No Harm report the only thing the Government has achieved is a half-hearted apology from Matt Hancock. Politicians from all parties are meeting to call for action in a debate in Parliament on the one-year anniversary since the Cumberlege report was published https://firstdonoharmappg.org.uk/category/news/ The back-bench debate is on Thursday July, 8, and is being led by MP Emma Hardy and Shadow Health Minister Alex Norris. Emma Hardy, MP, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) into mesh, said: “Women deserve better than the Government’s refusal to implement the Baroness Cumberlege recommendations. The recommendations will not only make life better for those living with mesh complications, they will also improve patient safety for everyone in the future.” The First Do No Harm report looked at the dismissive attitude towards women harmed by mesh implants, and also women and their babies harmed by Primodos pregnancy testing drug and epilepsy drug Sodium Valproate. Primodos was discontinued in the 1970s. Sodium Valproate is still used today and there are fears women are still not being warned of the risks to their unborn baby if they take it during pregnancy. The debate is calling for all Cumberlege recommendations to be implemented without further delay, including financial redress for women and sweeping reform of the healthcare and regulation framework. It is also calling for a retrospective audit of mesh to work out the number of women suffering. The Cumberlege report suggests contacting all women who had mesh in the year 2010 to see how they are in 2021. Kath Sansom, founder of campaign group Sling The Mesh, which has 9,000 members, said: “Mesh for stress incontinence was suspended in 2018 and we believe it should not be brought back until the audit is carried out until we know the true scale of complications. Scottish Government have pledged to never bring it back. Sadly, surgeons in England are pushing for it to be used again.” Included in the recommendations is a call for industry to declare all monies and gifts to doctors, teaching hospitals and research institutions. Kath said: “In post pandemic times it is more important than ever to know who is funding our research and prescribing decisions. In America there is a Sunshine Payment Act, forcing healthcare giants, who make billions in profits, to declare all the money and non-financial gifts they hand out. It has been proved such funding leads to bias in prescribing and bias in the scientific research. We need this legislation for the UK. That way campaigners and patients can see who is funding a doctor’s voice.” Meantime, in Northern Ireland and Wales, mesh injured women have been left virtually high and dry and will be looking to the debate for hope. Susan McLarnon of Sling The Mesh Northern Ireland, said: “Mesh services are next to non-existent. No formal announcement has been made since the new centres opened on 1st April. Patients who are lucky enough to get a gynaecology appointment are still being told mesh isn’t the issue. They are still in denial. Women have been left in limbo. Suffering horrendous pain with nowhere to turn. Some are being told to complain to their MP yet nobody is listening to us.” Karen Preater, of Mesh Awareness Wales, added: “Other than when the Cumberlege report came out, there has been no statements or correspondence, I have emailed several times asking about a Patient Safety Commissioner and have had no responses. South Wales have their centre. North Wales are told to use Manchester. Total silence from the Welsh Government.” The Parliamentary debate will look at the black hole in official statistics, which means nobody knows how many women have been harmed. Kath said: “We are deeply concerned about a significant discrepancy between NHS figures and surgeon data on mesh complications – we fear surgeons have downplayed complications by almost ten times. The truth is nobody knows the scale of this women’s health scandal and the only way to get to the bottom of it is a retrospective audit.” See the question to Parliament on discrepancy of the figures about the number of women suffering here: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2021-03-04/163289 USEFUL LINKS BLOG by MP Emma Hardy: Mesh surgery is costing the NHS millions https://www.emmahardy.org.uk/2018/04/18/mesh-surgery-failure-is-costing-the-nhs-millions-of-pounds/

A call for action on the one-year anniversary since the Cumberlege report was published will be happening in Parliament today and is being led by MP Emma Hardy and Shadow Health Minister Alex Norris. Emma Hardy, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (AAPG) has said “Women deserve better than the Government’s refusal to implement the Baroness Cumberlege recommendations. The recommendations will not only make life better for those living with mesh complications, they will also improve patient safety for everyone in the future.” Read full story. Source: Medical Plastics News, 07 July 2021

Baroness Julia Cumberlege has said she is angry and frustrated at the lack of progress being made after she led a critical review into how the health service treats female patients. During her review, she spent 2 years speaking to 700 women and their families who experienced complications linked to two drug treatments and a medical device. The four UK governments are still considering her recommendations and say they will respond fully later this year. Read full story. Source: BBC News, 08 July 2021

Analysis from leading psychiatrists found from 2020-2021 out of 47,000 women, only 3,1261 were able to get help from perinatal services. Whilst it was deemed the pandemic was not the main reason women were being denied access, it was established that due to lack of investment and funding, services were unable to provide support when needed. The Royal College of Psychiatrists is calling for funding in the next spending review. Read full story. Source: The Guardian, 1 July 2021

A woman in Scotland has died from cervical cancer after she was excluded from the cervical cancer screening programme. The error meant that more than 400 women have also not been tested and it has been revealed since then, a small number of women have developed cervical cancer. It has also emerged that some of the women wrongly excluded from the screening programme had partial hysterectomies dating back to 1997. Maree Todd, the Scottish public health minister extends her condolences to the family of the woman who died. NHS boards are putting together better measures to ensure the errors do not happen again. Read full story. Source: The Guardian, 24 June 2021

A statement has been released by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) and the Faculty for Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) addressing the concerns raised by women on painful IUD fittings. Dr Diana Mansour, Vice President of the Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Healthcare (FSRH) and Dr Edward Morris, President at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists give a statement in support to women who have experienced pain during an IUD fitting, describing their concern and dismay at women's pain being dismissed. Dr Edward Morris calls 'on the UK government to ensure these experiences are recognised and addressed in the new Women’s Health Strategy for England'. Read full story. Source: Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, 22 June 2021 Related hub content: The pain of my IUD fitting was horrific…and I’m not alone

Naga Munchetty speaks out about her experience having the IUD fitted after reading an article on another woman's experience and how painful it had been. She describes her experience having a coil fitting left her feeling "violated, weak and angry". Read full story. Source: BBC News, 21 June 2021

Two more NHS maternity units have been downgraded by the care watchdog amid safety concerns. The services at Colchester Hospital and Ipswich Hospital were downgraded from good, to 'requires improvement', finding staff shortages at both hospitals. Moreover, it was also found handovers were not sufficient meaning staff were not sharing the proper information about the women and babies. Among the concerns and issues raised, there were problems with team-working, properly recording patient information, and inefficient information systems. Read full story Source: The Independent, 16 June 2021

Women who have had transvaginal mesh removed privately are to be reimbursed by the Scottish Government it has emerged. Maree Todd, Women's Health Minister, has told MSPs that a new bill will be brought forward to allow money to be paid to women affected by the implantation of the transvaginal mesh. It has been found that of the 20, 000 women who have had the mesh surgery, 600 still suffer from the effects and complications. Read full story Source: The Scotsman, 16 June 2021

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has submitted evidence to a consultation run by the Department of Health and Social Care. The RCN has raised concerns that female patients are not listened to which results in delayed diagnosis and poor patient outcomes. It has also been suggested that there needs to be a bigger focus on designing services for women's needs and provide better support for women in the workplace, particularly in the healthcare sector. Read full story. Source: RCN, 10 June 2021

A woman was subjected to an unnecessary invasive procedure in an NHS outpatient clinic after she was confused for another patient, a safety watchdog has found. The Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch has called for a review of how the NHS can avoid the mishap happening again after investigating the case of a 39-year-old woman who was subjected to an unnecessary cervical examination. HSIB said a better system was needed as the number of outpatient appointments has increased from 54 million to 94 million during the last 10 years with many clinics carrying out more invasive procedures. According to its latest investigation, the female patient was attending a gynaecological outpatient clinic for a fertility treatment assessment. The error happened when she was called through from the waiting room as another patient had a similar sounding name. Read full story Source: The Independent, 2 June 2021