Preterm Birth Committee Report

Baroness Bertin Excerpts

Friday 6th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bertin (Con)]

My Lords, I cannot tell noble Lords how delighted I was when this issue was selected to be the subject of a special committee. I had witnessed families, including friends of mine, go through utter heartbreak. Many women can lose so many babies due to preterm birth. Of course, there is huge joy at the babies that do survive, but their general outcomes are not talked about enough nor about the journey that those families have to go on. So, I give huge praise to the committee. What a credit to this House that there was a committee with such huge expertise, which the noble Lord, Lord Patel, led remarkably. I also praise the staff who worked on the committee as well.

I was very disappointed not to be able to sit on the committee myself. Regrettably, I had started work for the Government on my harmful pornography review, so I felt that I could not do both, but I am very grateful to my noble friend Lady Wyld for keeping me very much updated on the progress of the report. I praise the report; it is so powerful. I welcome and support the many recommendations put forth by the committee, particularly those focused on improving long-term outcomes for babies and families. The noble Baroness, Lady Goudie, raised so many brilliant points about the emotional toll that this takes.

As the report rightly highlights, the devastating consequences of preterm birth do not end at the hospital doors. For many families, that is only the beginning. With one in 10 preterm babies going on to develop a permanent disability, life often becomes far more complex, both for the child and for their parents. Many developmental delays and long-term health conditions emerge only over time and, as has been mentioned in previous speeches, can be identified only through regular, structured follow-up by clinicians and community health professionals, particularly health visitors.

Yet, we are witnessing a troubling decline in the number of community health visitors—a workforce that is critical in identifying early signs of difficulty and providing support in the home environment. I feel personally about this, as it happened to me. I am lucky in that I have had three children, but I did not see a health visitor with my third baby at all; I had to push and push to see one, and I can remember thinking to myself that there were lots of problems with this. Luckily, I knew what I was doing, I was not having any postnatal depression or issues and I knew my baby was roughly hitting his milestones. But I can remember thinking, “My God, for new, fragile, mothers—particularly those who have been through a very difficult time—that would be unacceptable”. It absolutely has to be raised. These checks are not optional extras; they are lifelines, and without them, early developmental problems are missed and the window for effective intervention begins to close.

We must ensure continuity of care, not only for the children whose life chances depend on timely support in those critical early years but for the parents, who too often bear the troubling impacts of preterm birth in silence. The noble Baroness, Lady Goudie, also discussed relationship breakdowns; I do not know the figures, but I imagine that it puts an enormous strain on relationships, and that then makes the whole situation even more difficult.

Further, I am very pleased that the committee has reiterated what many in the field have long known: despite remarkable advances in neonatal care—which we absolutely must acknowledge—we are failing to make meaningful progress in mitigating the real risks of preterm birth. Without adequate and sustained funding, the field remains fragmented and under-researched. The reality is that pregnant women, quite rightly, do not want to take drugs, so there is not as much money going into the pharmaceutical research element because they cannot sell as many drugs as they might like to. I am not being cynical; that is the reality.

When I first proposed this inquiry, only 2% of the health research budget went towards reproductive health per annum, and I suspect that this figure has not massively shifted in the last two years. Clinicians and researchers continue to find themselves competing for diminishing pots of money, leading to vital projects faltering. This is of course not the only sector that has this issue.

However, there is hope. I draw your Lordships’ attention to the work of the medical research charity, Borne. I declare an interest in that its medical lead, Professor Mark Johnson, delivered my third baby. He has set up an amazing charity that focuses on preterm birth and I am very grateful for its work. It recently launched the Borne Collaborative, an initiative bringing together leading experts from across the globe, not to compete but to co-operate. These experts have given their time and expertise to help set clear strategic priorities for research and investment, helping to deliver evidence-based road maps to prevent preterm birth. I highlight and welcome that work.

This is precisely the kind of strategic direction that we lack at a national level. The current governmental proposals do not yet go far enough. The data speaks for itself. That is why I urge His Majesty’s Government to consider alternative and more rigorous approaches to preterm birth reduction. Among them should be the establishment of a national task force, a central body charged with the oversight of research, prevention, and intervention strategies, and supported by experts. Such a task force could ensure coherence in research funding, reduce variation in care across the regions—we know that there is always a huge postcode lottery—and develop effective therapies and care bundles. With better co-ordination, real-time data collection and resource sharing, we can move from reactive care to proactive prevention, which is what we need. This sort of strategy applies across many issues in government.

We must act now, not just with warm words and symbolic gestures but with meaningful and clear commitments. Without them, women and families will continue to bear the burden of a system that often forgets them.