A coalition of 13 leading pregnancy, birth and early parenting charities, including Pregnancy Sickness Support, will today give evidence to the Covid-19 Inquiry exposing the significant impact that poor management of maternity and neonatal services had on families during the pandemic.
The organisations (full list available below) are collectively acting as a Core Participant to the Inquiry, to represent the voices of the hundreds of thousands of new parents and families who experienced pregnancy and new parenthood, including neonatal admission, miscarriage and baby loss, across the UK during the pandemic.
The charities will seek to highlight the experiences of these families, whose needs were consistently overlooked in critical healthcare decisions, and the impact this has had on them and their babies.
Jenny Ward, CEO of The Lullaby Trust who is representing the 13 charities giving evidence to the Inquiry, said: “We have worked as a group of charities to shed light on the experiences of the pregnant women, new parents and families we supported during the pandemic, and the impact on them of decisions made about maternity and neonatal care during this period.
“These are difficult experiences to hear, but we must do so in order to learn from mistakes made during the pandemic and ensure pregnant women, new parents and their babies are never again failed as they were during Covid-19″.
Charlotte Howden, CEO of Pregnancy Sickness Support, said: “Hyperemesis Gravidarum often begins very early in pregnancy, leading many women and their families to seek help from multiple healthcare providers, both in primary care and emergency services.
Our service users have made it clear that there were no provisions or support for those experiencing concerns in early pregnancy during the pandemic. During a time when knowledge about Covid-19 was so limited, women were often discouraged from accessing the vital services they needed or told they had to attend appointments alone—an impossibility when enduring relentless vomiting and intense nausea.
Despite living in a world with ever-advancing online communication, women were left to self-diagnose, dismissed, and frequently told that nothing could be done for them.”
The charities presenting evidence to the Inquiry are:
Aching Arms, Baby Lifeline, Bliss, The Ectopic Pregnancy Trust, Group B Strep Support, ICP Support, The Lullaby Trust, The Miscarriage Association, NCT (National Childbirth Trust), Pelvic Partnership, Pregnancy Sickness Support, Tommy’s and Twins Trust.
