Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing access to pelvic floor (a) training and (b) physiotherapy for every new mother.

Last October, NHS England published a national service specification for Perinatal Pelvic Health Services. The specification sets out the expected standards of care to improve the prevention, identification, and access to physiotherapy for pelvic health issues during pregnancy, and for at least one year following birth. Perinatal Pelvic Health Services will work with local Maternity and Physiotherapy services so that all women receive quality information about the risk of developing pelvic health problems before they have their baby, the key signs of pelvic floor dysfunction, and things they can do to help prevent these issues from developing, for instance performing pelvic floor exercises. The aim is to reduce the number of women living with pelvic health problems postnatally and in later life.

The specification also states that Perinatal Pelvic Health Services will work with maternity services across England to implement the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists’ Obstetric Anal Sphincter Injuries Care Bundle, to reduce rates of perineal tears resulting from labour and vaginal birth, and improve outcomes for women. This has been shown to reduce serious birth injuries by as much as 20%. Perinatal Pelvic Health Services are currently being rolled out across England.