Maternity survey 2021

“In previous surveys, the picture of maternity care in England has been one of year-on-year improvement” says this report. However, “This year… results have declined in many areas… likely reflecting the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on services and staff”.

One of those impacts was involvement of partners, with a large decrease (from 97% in 2019 to 84% in 2021) in the proportion of women who said that their partner or someone else close to them was involved as much as they wanted. There was an even larger decline in the ability of partners to stay with patients as much as they wanted, from 74% in 2019 to 34% in 2021.

Choice was also affected, with 20% of women saying they were not offered any choices about where to have their baby. 62% were not given a choice about where their postnatal care would take place, much higher than 52% in 2019.

There were substantial declines in experience of information provision, with one quarter of women not being given enough information about coronavirus restrictions and any implications for their maternity care, and 23% not given enough information to help them decide where to have their baby (compared with 12% in 2019).

Staff availability changed, with 65% of women ‘always’ able to get a member of staff to help them during labour and birth, down from 72% in 2019. Antenatally and postnatally, however, staff availability was better, with good rates of face to face appointments (98% antenatally and 95% postnatally). Additionally, 41% of women saw or spoke to the same midwife every time during their antenatal check-ups (up from 37% in 2019) and 30% saw or spoke to the same midwife postnatally, (up from 28% in 2019).

Most women were asked about their mental health during appointments – 69% antenatally and 95% postnatally. 83% were given enough support for their mental health during their pregnancy. However, information could be improved, as less than three-fifths of women (56%) were ‘definitely’ given information about any changes they might experience to their mental health after having their baby, down from 63% in 2019. And only 47% were ‘definitely’ given information about their own physical recovery after the birth.

63% of women said midwives and other health professionals ‘always’ gave them active support and encouragement with feeding their baby, compared with 69% in 2019. Less than half of women (48%) were ‘always’ able to get support or advice about feeding their baby during evenings, nights or weekends if they needed it.