Maternity care needs “systematic change” the Government’s maternity adviser has said.
Speaking ahead of the publication of Donna Ockenden’s review of maternity care in Nottingham, Labour MP Michelle Welsh told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme it was “pure luck” that her own baby had survived birth.
She said: “When it comes to luck, as to whether your baby survives or not, then that is a true indication of a system that is truly, truly failing.”
Asked whether there was a will within Government to change things, she said: “I feel that there is a momentum. I do feel that there is a will.
“I mean, I absolutely make sure that I am listened to. I haven’t got in within those doors to sit there quiet and just nod my head. I’m absolutely out there, at the forefront, being very, very loud and clear about the fact that we do need the funding.
“But funding alone is not going to solve this crisis. There needs to be huge systematic change. The Government has to be bold in the policies that it makes, because tinkering around the edges will not solve this crisis.
“And some of these organisations involved are going to have to face these truths, and we are going to have to deal with this head on.”