21 September 2021

Sadly, maternity care is facing further criticism today following a report published by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

A total of 41% of maternity services are rated as either “inadequate” or “requires improvement” by the CQC, this is despite a national focus on maternity by the government.

This news echoes the findings of the MBRRACE-UK Perinatal Confidential Enquiry Stillbirths and neonatal deaths in twin pregnancies, published earlier this year. The report found that ‘in around 1 in 2 baby deaths, the care was poor. If care had been better, it may have prevented the baby from dying.’ It also found that ‘less than half the women were looked after by a multidisciplinary team of doctors, midwives and sonographers who were experts in twin pregnancies’.

This report was a stark reminder of the inequalities that our families face. The recent MBRRACE data shows a multiple birth is twice as likely than a singleton pregnancy to be stillborn and 4.3 times more likely to die in neonatal care.

These statistics are worrying for our families and Twins Trust is working hard to ensure improvements in maternity care for twin and multiple birth families are made as a matter of urgency.  Earlier this year, following publication of the MBRRACE report, we prioritised contacting all maternity units to advise them of the report and the recommendations.

We have now contacted 121 units in total, this includes all units where there was evidence that improvement was required, and offered to support them make improvements through our maternity engagement programme 

We continue to focus on supporting units to provide the best possible care for our families to ensure that our twin, triplet and more babies’ receive the best possible start in life.

If you are expecting more than one, please take a look at our antenatal care checklist – this details the level of care that you should be receiving. If you want to find out if there’s a twin’s clinic at your local hospital – please look on our website. Our maternity engagement team are happy to help if you have concerns or have any questions about the care you are receiving.