Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the implications for his Department's policies of the findings in the report entitled MBRRACE Missing Voices Saving Lives, Improving Mothers' Care: Lay Summary 2022 on the number of women dying from pre-eclampsia; and whether he is taking steps to implement the recommendations of the report by the University of Birmingham and Birmingham Health Partners entitled Healthy Mum, Healthy Baby, Healthy Future report, published in May 2022.

No specific assessment has been made. However, we have commissioned 14 maternal medicine networks in England, which will ensure access to specialist management and care for women with chronic and acute medical problems in pregnancy.

We welcome the report ‘Healthy Mum, Healthy Baby, Healthy Future’ and its recommendations on overcoming barriers to investment and participation in research into medications in pregnancy. The Department commissions research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The ‘Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022-2027’ sets out how the NIHR will become a more inclusive funder of research and widen access to participation in clinical trials. The Strategy has been designed to address inequalities associated with the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, including pregnancy and maternity.

The NIHR has published guidance from the INCLUDE project which aims to improve the inclusion of groups with lower representation in research and clinical trials, such as pregnant women. The NIHR has commissioned research into maternal and neonatal health, focusing on the safety of maternity services for women and babies. The Department is also hosting a meeting with researchers later this year to address the under-representation of women in research, including pregnant women.