Michelle Welsh, the Government’s newly appointed maternity adviser, has warned that without ring‑fenced funding to overhaul services, "mothers and babies will suffer." She highlighted more than 4,600 maternity and newborn safety investigations since 2018, a 50% rise in the maternal death rate, and an apparent cut in dedicated improvement funding from £95m to £2m. Imminent reports from Donna Ockenden and Baroness Amos must be acted on, Welsh said, or years of findings risk being ignored. Charities and clinicians have urged the Health Secretary to commit to implementing all recommendations in full.
Fund Maternity Overhaul Or 'Mothers And Babies Will Suffer', Government Adviser Warns
Michelle Welsh says maternity care needs to be ‘equitable, inclusive, accessible and truly person-centred’
Ministers risk leaving mothers and newborns exposed unless they provide substantial, ring‑fenced funding to overhaul maternity services, Michelle Welsh — the Government’s newly appointed maternity adviser — warned at a London summit.
Calls For Urgent Funding And Action
Welsh, a Labour MP appointed to the role in May, said she feared that a large body of investigations into baby deaths and other safety failures would be "left on the shelf" unless ministers backed reform with sustained resources to tackle persistent disparities in care.
"It is my goal to make maternity safer for absolutely everyone," Welsh told delegates. "Improvements cannot be achieved without appropriate ring‑fenced funding for maternity care — not just to sustain services, but to actively implement the improvements we so desperately need."
Scale Of The Problem
Recent figures show there have been more than 4,600 investigations into maternity and newborn safety cases in England since 2018. Across the decade to 2023, there were a further 59 major reports containing 748 recommendations aimed at improving maternity services. Over the same period, the UK maternal death rate has risen by 50%, reaching its highest level in 20 years.
Major Inquiries Imminent
Welsh’s warning comes ahead of two high‑profile reviews. Donna Ockenden, a senior midwife, is expected to publish findings on Nottingham University Hospitals on 24 June after examining roughly 2,500 cases. A wider investigation, led by Baroness Amos, into repeated maternity failings across 12 NHS trusts is due to report the following week. Welsh cautioned that both inquiries risked being ignored unless ministers backed reform with significant investment and a commitment to implementation.
Funding Concerns
At the summit, Welsh cited an investigation by the Health Service Journal which found that dedicated, ring‑fenced funding for maternity safety work and extra staff fell sharply from £95m in 2024/25 to just £2m in 2025/26. Welsh said increasing staffing levels and ensuring frontline teams have time and support would be "fundamental" to delivering compassionate, high‑quality care.
Case study for maternity story
She also called for maternity services to be "equitable, inclusive, accessible and truly person‑centred", and urged targeted action to address what she described as "outrageous" inequalities experienced by Black and Asian families and staff.
Repeated Failings And Public Concern
Successive inquiries have highlighted similar failings: understaffing, failures to escalate deteriorating patients, communication breakdowns, and instances where women’s concerns were dismissed. BBC Panorama’s investigation into Nottingham University Hospitals alleged midwives had been discouraged from being "too kind" to anxious pregnant women for fear they would return frequently. The Nottingham inquiry covers stillbirths, neonatal deaths, brain injuries and maternal deaths; Nottinghamshire Police is also conducting a criminal investigation.
More than 100 charities, campaign groups and clinicians — including the Institute of Health Visiting, NCT, the Birth Trauma Association and Tommy’s — have written to Health Secretary James Murray urging him to publicly commit to acting "in full and without delay" on any recommendations from the Amos review.
Government Response
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said every woman deserves "safe, compassionate maternity care" and that the Government was committed to urgent improvements. The department pointed to investments including more than £149m to improve the safety of maternity and neonatal facilities and plans to hire 2,000 additional midwives. It also said the Secretary of State is chairing a taskforce to ensure Baroness Amos’s recommendations are acted on without delay.
Welsh said she would press ministers to ensure that inquiries lead to concrete, funded action rather than being shelved — warning that without change, "women and babies are being systematically failed" and frontline staff will continue to be under intolerable pressure.
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