Released on: 28 April 2011

This Saturday 19 June will mark a year since the publication of the ‘Maternity Services’ report by the Wales Audit Office (WAO), which made recommendations for improvements to maternity care services in Wales.

Twelve months on, little progress has been made towards meeting its recommendations, and NCT, the UK’s largest parenting charity, is calling for urgent action.

One of the report’s recommendations was that maternity service users should be involved in the planning of maternity services through committees and forums, which could be ‘rich sources of information but are not being used optimally’.

However, in the past year Maternity Services Liaison Committees have not been meeting, and user involvement has not been established as a way of planning and developing maternity services in Wales.

Anne Fox, Head of Campaigns and Public Policy, said: “It is concerning that a year has gone by and there has been little progress in improving care in Wales.

“Now is the time to act, to learn from the experiences of maternity service users and create a national strategy providing guidance on good service provision.

“NCT wants all women to receive one-to-one midwifery care during labour, and quality postnatal care which will optimise the health and well-being of the whole family.”

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