Sam Pretlove, Deputy Chief Medical Officer at Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust, represented NHS Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board (ICB) on 13 May giving oral evidence at a session of the House of Lords Preterm Birth Committee. Sam gave evidence alongside Caroline Lacy, LMNS Clinical Programme Lead at NHS Somerset ICB and Catherine McClennan, Director of Women’s Health and Maternity Programme and LMNS Senior Responsible Officer at NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB.
Sam spoke about the innovative work taking place across health and care in Birmingham and Solihull to reduce preterm birth rates, including extending cervical assessments to multiple pregnancies, those having twins or triplets and bringing in reivews and follow up appointments for preterm births to support parents for their next pregnancies. Sam shared about the work of retention midwives to help improve staff experience and retention in Birmingham and Solihull, as well as the importance of extra support for newly qualified midwives as they settle into the role. She also spoke about the need for greater Government investment in research, workforce and services.
The Committee was appointed by the Government in January to examine how preterm births can be prevented and how the adverse consequences of preterm birth for mothers, babies and families can be reduced. It will assess whether current Government policy is adequate and how to close the gap in outcomes among women and babies from different backgrounds.
The Government has set an ambition to reduce the preterm birthrate to 6% of live births by 2025. Preterm birth – when a baby is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy – is the single biggest cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity in the UK. Just under 8% of live births are preterm each year. There are a wide range of risk factors associated with preterm birth but in many cases the cause is unknown.
The session is available to watch here: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/52be4dc5-27c2-40a9-918b-f60d95f195e0