The Maternity Clinical Network supports the delivery of high quality care for women during pregnancy, childbirth and the post-natal period. The network was established in April 2013 and covers the 6 STP areas across the West Midlands. Clinical networks exist to support the reduction of variation in high quality healthcare, sharing good practice and innovation in clinical practice. The West Midlands has around over 70,000 births per year taking place across 14 Trusts in 6 Local Maternity Systems.

We work in close partnership with the neonatal operational delivery networks in the West Midlands to support continuity across the maternity and neonatal pathway. Citizen and healthcare professional engagement is vital to make sure that we are providing the right kind of support and we have supported engagement activity in each of the LMS areas. Our other partners include Health Education England, West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, Specialised Commissioning and NHS Improvement.

Our work focusses on the local ownership and implementation of national priorities, including the Maternity Transformation Programme (Better Births), Saving Babies’ Lives care bundle, perinatal mental health and the maternity and newborn safety collaborative. At the same time we share best practice across the region, so that good ideas can be translated into practice at pace.

Locally we are working with Local Maternity Systems to support the implementation of the Better Births recommendations, tailored to meet local needs and priorities. All of our work is targeted around key national drivers including Better Births, Each Baby Counts and Safer Maternity Care.

Useful resources and links

• Better Births: Improving outcomes of maternity services in England – A Five Year Forward View for maternity care
• Maternal and neonatal health safety collaborative
• Safer maternity care
• Each Baby Counts