A brief guide to Better Births

Better Births is a report of the National Maternity Review and was published in February 2016. The report sets out a clear vision for maternity services across England to become safer, more personalised, kinder, professional and more family friendly; where every woman has access to information to enable her to make decisions about her care; and where she and her baby can access support that is centred on their individual needs and circumstances. It also calls for all staff to be supported to deliver care which is women centred, working in high performing teams, in organisations which are well led and in cultures which promote innovation, continuous learning, and break down organisational and professional boundaries.

Better Births

There are nine work-streams supporting the implementation of Better Births locally and these are:

Local transformation – including work to support the development and support for Local Maternity Systems, models for continuity of carer
Safer care – including the new maternity and neonatal health collaborative, rapid resolution and standardising investigations
Choice and personalisation – including personal maternity health budgets and the forthcoming maternity service specification
Perinatal Mental Health – an opportunity to ensure high quality care across all LMS areas including access to mother and baby units
Workforce – including new model of midwifery supervision, increased number of sonographers, maternity workforce strategy
Data and information – including new maternity indicators, maternity challenge fund and data viewer
Harnessing technology – under the NHS Digital developing Maternity App and maternity information standards
Reforming the payment system – including review of tariff
Improving prevention – led by Public Health England focusing this year on smoking and breastfeeding.