About Us

MAMA Academy has been helping to save babies lives since 2012. Sadly, the UK has one of the highest stillbirth rates in the developed world with the majority of deaths potentially preventable. We believe this is unacceptable.

When MAMA Academy first launched, the number of stillbirths began a significant decline for the first time in 20 years which has continued year on year. Currently, over 1300 stillbirths are being prevented every year.

We remain committed to seeing a continuous decline in stillbirth and neonatal death rates.

MAMA’s Vision

“For there to be no more preventable stillbirths in the UK”

MAMA’s Mission

To empower maternity professionals and inform expectant parents about stillbirth prevention methods to help more babies arrive safely.

MAMA’s Strategy

 To undertake focused campaigning and lobbying to enable more babies to arrive safely

We will work to:

  • Push stillbirth and maternal health up the healthcare agenda to maintain and increase available resources for stillbirth prevention.
  • Ensure that all maternity professionals study stillbirth prevention and bereavement care as elements of their initial registration and that their subsequent Continuing Professional Development (CPD) requires the inclusion of these topics to renew their validation.
  • Ensure that safer pregnancy messaging continues to be delivered to parents and healthcare professionals as the NHS aims to go paperless by 2020.
  • Ensure that maternal health risk factors are effectively flagged up throughout pregnancy and are sufficiently visible in a woman’s medical notes to alert maternity healthcare professionals for the need for appropriate action.

Network and collaborate with key stakeholders to promote what needs to be done to minimise stillbirth

 We will work to:

  • Work in partnership with families and sector representative bodies to better articulate, refine and shape a shared vision for maternal health, safety and wellbeing in the UK.
  • Bring together professionals’ and parents’ voices to share their needs and innovations so best practice can be achieved consistently across the UK.
  • Spread our influence and understanding to interested parties / key stakeholders.

Support maternity professionals to deliver consistent best practice across the UK

We will work to:

  • Signpost maternity professionals to existing resources and develop our own tools to enable safer pregnancies.
  • Instil confidence in professionals to make it easier to provide expectant parents with informed choice about maternity care, to enable parents to make decisions which are right for them.

Grow a well governed and managed organisation to create a stable and sustainable platform from which to achieve our ambitious vision

We will work to:

  • Develop sustainable communities of fundraisers which are geographically based where MAMA Academy is having the highest impact. These networks will consist of parents, bereaved parents, midwives and other maternity professionals, trusts, businesses and community organisations who will also increase publicity for MAMA Academy.
  • Enable supporters to fundraise for us easily by inspiring them with our impact and developing income streams that are designed for the target audience. This will include events, appeals and charity of the year opportunities that are well researched and implemented to raise unrestricted funds for MAMA Academy.
  • Create rigorous stewardship plans to offer the best support and transparency to our entire supporter base. Designed so all our supporters receive the best experience, become closer to our work and continue to support us as well as bring others on board.

Our Influence

The trusted relationships we have established with passionate midwives enable us to support healthcare professionals with vital training and resources to aid consistent maternity care across the country; improving outcomes for families and their precious babies.

We work closely alongside parents, government health departments, royal colleges and other charities to partner together towards are shared mission of saving babies lives. We are also part of the following groups:

  • International Stillbirth Alliance
  • Healthy Newborn Network
  • All Party Parliamentary Group for Baby Loss
  • Pregnancy and Baby Charity Network
  • London Perinatal Morbidity & Mortality Network

Communication and education are key to our success, as evidenced through the distribution of official Department of Health Safer Pregnancy Messaging distributed via our Wellbeing Wallets.

In 2017, The Health Secretary set a target of a 50% reduction by 2025 (brought forward from the previous target of 50% reduction by 2030). The year-on-year reduction of stillbirths since 2010 from the previous average of 5.3/1000 to 3.9/1000 (latest ONS figures) represents over 1200 fewer deaths a year. We are therefore on our way to fulfil that target, but more work needs to be done.

MAMA’s Values 

Challenging

We believe in:

  • Tackling the myth that stillbirth is a tragedy which can’t be prevented.
  • Raising awareness to undermine the taboo of stillbirth.
  • Driving change to push stillbirth and maternal health up the healthcare agenda.

Championing Voices

We believe in:

  • Respecting people’s differences and promoting inclusion.
  • Actively seeking and listening to views and opinions.
  • Partnering with others and promoting collaborative working in maternal health, wellbeing and stillbirth prevention.

Empowering

We believe in:

  • Promoting evidence-based best practice to facilitate the provision of a consistently high quality and safe maternity service across the four countries of the UK.
  • Educating professionals to enable parents to make fully informed decisions.
  • Inspiring supporters, families, parents and our staff with the confidence, knowledge and ability to join together in achieving our vision.

Doing The Right Thing

We believe in:

  • Being transparent about what we do and operating to the highest ethical standards.
  • Working efficiently and effectively to secure financial and operational sustainability.
  • Striving for continual improvement to maximise our impact.

Support Us

We are always in need of funding to keep MAMA Academy running. Any donation you can give us will be very gratefully received. Donations can be made via Just Giving who will claim Gift Aid for us. If you would like to organise a fundraising event, please contact us as we are full of ideas and would love to help promote your event!

Contact Us

We welcome your feedback and value your support. Please get in touch:

contact@mamaacademy.org.uk

07427 851670