Have your say on the future of maternity and neonatal care

We want to make sure all babies born in north east London have the best possible start in life and that their parents experience the best possible pregnancy and birth.

An important part of this is making sure our services are able to support this, and are able to support the needs of the growing number of people who live in our area.

To do this, the NHS in north east London is working on a programme to look at maternity and neonatal care.

This work is being led by clinicians and we are working together across health and care organisations in the area in an open and collaborative way to develop this programme.

Since early this year, we have been working together to understand what type of care and support pregnant women and people, and babies need, how many people may need these services in the future, and what the best ways are of delivering care.

To do this, we have considered information from families, NHS staff and community representatives, reviewed service data, and looked at areas such as population growth, inequalities and health needs. No decisions about services have been made.

We will continue to involve local women and people, their families, staff, and stakeholders to help us to shape services that provide the best care to pregnant women and people, babies and their families.

Here is a summary of what we found:

• The birth rate is growing - the number of babies born in north east London will continue to increase as the number of people living in north east London grows.
• Women and people are having more complicated pregnancies and births, so more people need the right hospital-based care. This will continue to grow.
• Our neonatal beds are often full making delivering care to babies at the right place and at the right time challenging. It also means some babies have to be cared for in hospitals outside our area.
• If we continue with the same type of care we have at the moment, the number of beds we have in the places where care needs to be delivered won’t match the number of people needing them in the future.
• This doesn’t just mean having more beds or space for maternity and neonatal care in our hospitals, there are opportunities to provide care differently to support this need.
• There are inequalities that can affect the health of the pregnancy and baby for women and people from different population groups.
• Some pregnant women and people could have less complicated or lower risk pregnancies or births if they receive advice and support earlier.
• Doing some things differently before and during pregnancy could help make important improvements in these areas and reduce inequalities.
• Our staff are hard-working, resilient and working together to provide safe care, but they are under huge pressure.
• With more women and people needing intensive clinical support, and opportunities to provide care differently, we need a workforce and model of care that fits this.
• Challenges to things like workforce mean some women and people have different options and experiences of birth depending on where they choose to have their baby.