NHS England publishes updated Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle

NHS England has published a new version of the Saving Babies Lives Care Bundle as part of its ongoing drive to reduce the rates of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal death and brain injuries.

Version two of the Care Bundle has been produced to build on the achievements of version one and address the issues identified in its evaluation. It aims to provide detailed information for providers and commissioners of maternity care on how to reduce perinatal mortality across England. It brings together five elements of care that are widely recognised as evidence-based and/or best practice.

The new fifth element is reducing preterm birth. This is an additional element to the care bundle developed in response to the Department of Health's Safer Maternity Care report which extended the Maternity Safety Ambition to include reducing preterm births from 8% to 6%.

The detailed report shows that stillbirths fell by a fifth at the maternity units where implementation of the Care Bundle was evaluated over the two years to April 2017.

The report can be accessed here.