New maternity strategy aims to reduce the number of stillbirths

The government has announced a maternity strategy to reduce the number of stillbirths as part of plans to make the NHS the safest place in the world to give birth.

Families who suffer stillbirth or life- changing injuries to their babies will be offered an independent investigation to find out what went wrong and why, and full- term stillbirths will be investigated by coroners.

Under the plans, hundreds of stillbirth, early neonatal death and severe brain injury

cases each year will be referred to the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, the new NHS safety investigator led by experts. This will standardise investigations of cases so that the NHS learns as quickly as possible from what went wrong and shares the learning to prevent future tragedies.

The government is also bringing forward from 2030 to 2025 the ambition to halve rates of stillbirths, neonatal and maternal deaths, and brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth.