The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) will develop tools and training to reduce brain injuries at birth, UK health bosses have announced.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said RCOG will develop tools to monitor and respond to a baby’s wellbeing during labour and to manage complications with babies’ positioning during caesarean sections.
DHSC has pledged £3m to support the programme, which will also include a childbirth safety culture toolkit to ensure the whole system learns from good practice and mistakes.
Judy Ledger, founder and CEO of Baby Lifeline, a charity that supports NHS staff to prevent injuries and deaths in and around childbirth, welcomed the funding.
She said brain injuries cause ‘untold devastation’ to the families impacted and called for further investment to support continual improvement.
“As a charity that has been campaigning tirelessly for increased investment in the maternity frontline, and particularly training relating to the main causes of avoidable brain injuries and deaths during pregnancy and birth, we’re pleased to see the additional investment of £3m to reduce brain injuries at birth.
“Avoidable brain injuries cause untold devastation to families affected and cost the NHS millions of pounds each year.
“Considerable investment needs to be made to better resource and staff maternity services and to support continual learning and improvements to care.”
The Department of Health and Social Care previously provided £450,000 to the RCOG to develop a new workforce planning tool to improve how maternity units calculate their medical staffing requirements and better support families and babies.
The tool, which will be available next year, will calculate the number of obstetricians at all grades required locally and nationally to provide a safe, personalised maternity service within the context of the wider workforce.
Dr Edward Morris, president of the RCOG, said: “We are delighted that funding has been awarded to our collaboration to deliver phase 2 of the Avoiding Brain Injury in Childbirth (ABC) programme.
“By drawing on expertise from across the health sector, and listening to the experiences of women and their families, we are developing tools to support maternity units in providing the best possible care to pregnant women and their babies, and establish clear processes for effective fetal monitoring.
“Any event of avoidable brain injury is tragic, for the newborn, for the family, and for the midwives and obstetricians involved. All maternity staff want to ensure that both mother and baby have the best possible outcomes.
“The development of these approaches to monitor babies is key to supporting maternity staff to safely deliver babies.
“We are grateful to all the women and healthcare professionals who have been involved with the design of this national programme. This collaborative approach has provided us with a robust base on which to build as the programme enters the second stage.”
