The Health and Social Care Committee will hold a second evidence
session on Black maternal health at 9.30am on Wednesday
18 June.
This session will be an opportunity for MPs to reflect on the
evidence they heard in their session in May, in which
witnesses highlighted that there are significant gaps in
culturally competent maternal care for Black women. Witnesses
described how Black women need greater support to self-advocate
due to systemic dismissal of their concerns, racial biases in
healthcare, cultural insensitivity, and fear of negative
repercussions from social services. The Committee also heard how
more efficient data collection, particularly relating to
ethnicity, is vital to understanding disparities in maternal
care.
In next week's two panel session, MPs will first pose questions
to witnesses from the Royal College of Midwives, the Royal
College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, and Birmingham &
Solihull United Maternity and Newborn
Partnership.
The Committee will explore why Black women face higher rates of
clinical interventions during childbirth and what training is
provided to healthcare professionals to ensure that Black women
are listened to and enabled to make decisions during childbirth.
MPs will also examine whether medical professionals are currently
supported to accurately identify medical conditions in Black
women and babies.
In the second panel, the Committee will question the
Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety,
Women's Health and Mental Health, the Chief Midwifery Officer at
NHS England (NHSE), and the Director of the National Healthcare
Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHSE.
MPs will ask the second panel why outcomes in Black maternal
healthcare do not appear to be improving, despite initiatives to
improve maternity outcomes and will pose questions on the removal
of ringfenced funding for maternity services.
The Committee will also question the panel on efforts to increase
the number of midwives by 2026 and what steps are being taken to
increase diversity while increasing numbers.
Witnesses on 18 June
From 9:30am
- Janet Fyle MBE, Professional Policy Advisor at the Royal
College of Midwives
- Sylvia Owusu-Nepaul, Programme Director at Birmingham and
Solihull United Maternity & Newborn Partnership
- Professor Hassan Shehata, Senior and Global Health Vice
President at the Royal College of Obstetricians and
Gynaecologists (RCOG)
From 10:30am
-
, Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State for Patient Safety, Women's Health and
Mental Health at the Department of Health and Social Care
(DHSC)
- Kate Brintworth, Chief Midwifery Officer at NHS England
- Professor Bola Owolabi, Director of the National Healthcare
Inequalities Improvement Programme at NHS England
- Professor Lucy Chappell, Chief Scientific Adviser at the
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)
