A major national review of maternity and neonatal services in Wales has now been published.

The Path to Safer Beginnings in Wales sets out the findings of the National Assurance Assessment, an independent evaluation commissioned by the Welsh Government to examine the safety, quality and consistency of care across the country.

The review draws on engagement with hundreds of families and staff, site visits to services across Wales, and analysis of national data. Its findings paint a complex picture: one where compassionate care is delivered every day by committed professionals, but where significant systemic vulnerabilities still exist.

For families, professionals, and policymakers, the report offers both a sobering reflection and a roadmap for improvement.

As a charity dedicated to preventing baby loss and improving maternity safety, MAMA Academy welcomes this review and the opportunity it presents to strengthen maternity care across Wales.

Dedicated Staff Working Within a Pressured System

One of the clearest messages from the report is that many maternity professionals are delivering compassionate, high-quality care despite considerable system pressures.

Families frequently described midwives and clinicians as kind, supportive and deeply committed to their wellbeing.

However, the report also highlights the challenges staff face daily. These include workforce shortages, increasing complexity of pregnancies, rising demand on services, pressure on postnatal wards, and ongoing infrastructure and IT challenges.

Many staff spoke about the difficulty of providing the level of care they want to deliver when resources and staffing are stretched.

This mirrors findings from maternity investigations across the UK. The commitment of frontline professionals is strong, but the systems supporting them are often under strain.

Variation in Services Across Wales

The review found that access to maternity services can vary depending on where families live.

Differences were identified in areas such as triage systems, induction of labour pathways, access to specialist services, neonatal service configurations, and the availability of certain birth settings.

These variations can create inconsistent experiences and uncertainty for families, particularly when services change or are temporarily suspended.

Ensuring that women and birthing people have clear and consistent information about their options and care pathways is therefore an important priority for the system.

Postnatal Care: A Critical Gap

One of the strongest themes in the report concerns postnatal support.

Families frequently described feeling well supported during pregnancy and labour, but reported a significant drop-off in support once they returned home with their baby.

Postnatal care is a crucial period for physical recovery, mental health support, feeding support, identifying complications in both parent and baby, and adjusting to life with a newborn.

Yet the review found that postnatal services are often under-resourced and under-prioritised compared with other stages of maternity care.

Strengthening postnatal care is therefore identified as a key area for improvement.

Mental Health Support Needs Strengthening

The report also highlights gaps in perinatal mental health provision.

Families reported difficulty accessing timely support during pregnancy and after birth, and the review notes that Wales currently lags behind other UK nations in this area.

Improving access to mental health care is essential for the wellbeing of both parents and babies, particularly during a time of profound physical and emotional change.

Inequalities Must Be Addressed

The report acknowledges that maternity care does not affect all families equally.

Social disadvantage, cultural barriers, language differences and existing health conditions can all influence experiences and outcomes.

Addressing these inequalities requires services to be inclusive, culturally responsive, accessible to diverse communities, and designed around the needs of the populations they serve.

Reducing inequalities is not only a matter of fairness, but also a critical component of improving safety.

Leadership and National Coordination

Another key finding of the review is the need for stronger national coordination across maternity and neonatal services in Wales.

Currently, several organisations are responsible for aspects of improvement and oversight. The report suggests that greater alignment between these bodies would strengthen the system’s ability to monitor safety trends, identify risks earlier, and implement improvements consistently across Wales.

Better national oversight can help ensure that learning is shared quickly and that improvements benefit families everywhere.

What Happens Next

The report sets out eight priority areas for improvement, including strengthening national leadership and coordination, improving workforce planning and staffing levels, investing in infrastructure and digital systems, improving perinatal mental health services, strengthening safety monitoring systems, improving neonatal service planning, learning more effectively from feedback and incidents, and reducing inequalities in maternity care.

The Welsh Government has accepted the report and will now take forward work to implement these recommendations.

A Moment for Learning and Progress

Reviews like this can be difficult to read. They highlight gaps, pressures and missed opportunities within the system.

But they also offer something invaluable: a clearer understanding of where improvements are needed and how they can be achieved.

Across Wales, maternity professionals are working tirelessly to support families through one of life’s most important moments.

With the right support, leadership and resources, the goal is clear: a maternity system where every family receives safe, compassionate and consistent care.

At MAMA Academy, we remain committed to supporting both families and professionals with evidence-based information and practical resources that help keep babies safe.

Because every family deserves the safest possible beginning.