Why We Do What We Do

MAMA Academy was set up in 2012 to help more babies arrive safely, as the UK has one of the highest stillbirth rates in the developed world.

The tragic reality….

Sadly around 4,500 babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth every year in the UK, which amounts to around 13 every DAY.  A report published in The Lancet medical journal in 2015 concluded that a substantial proportion of stillbirths are potentially preventable as they occur so close to term. If babies at risk of being stillborn were identified, they could be delivered early, preventing a tragic outcome.

What we’re doing about it….

MAMA Academy is positive about pregnancy and committed to raising awareness of what can be done to help save babies’ lives. By empowering expectant parents with pregnancy information, we can help them feel in control of their pregnancy and confident in reporting any problematic symptoms to their maternity team without delay. We are also passionate about supporting midwives in their practice by keeping them up to date with current research and guidelines to aid consistent maternity care. We work closely with The Royal College of Midwives, NHS England and individual NHS Trusts to ensure we provide accurate educational information and best practice guidance to enable midwives to offer the highest standard of care for all women.

How we’re doing it….

  • Our Wellbeing Wallets are designed to keep antenatal notes safe and are printed with important educational messages for a healthy pregnancy. The advice is regularly read whilst mums wait for appointments in antenatal clinics, making the knowledge second nature. They also help midwives start conversations with mums on vital pregnancy topics such as monitoring babies’ movements. We are working closely with NHS England to provide our wallets to ALL trusts to give to mums at their booking appointment.
  • Our London Ambulance Call Cards assist midwives in requesting an urgent transfer from a home birth or stand alone birth centre. They improve response times by providing the direct phone number and key trigger words to ensure a rapid response, resulting in mothers receiving the care they need a lot sooner than they may otherwise have done.
  • Our pictorial posters and educational leaflets are available free of charge and in various languages to empower women to have a safer pregnancy.
  • Our awareness posts on social media empower parents with safer pregnancy messaging to know what symptoms they must report to their maternity team without delay.
  • Our conference presentations empower midwives with the belief they can change their practice for the better. We equip them with powerful knowledge on stillbirth prevention and change attitudes to enable trusts to know that stillbirth can sometimes be avoidable and not just “one of those things”.
  • Our website and active social media communities encourage pregnant women to equip themselves with the knowledge they need to give their baby the best possible chance of arriving safely, and enable women to learn from each other’s experiences.
  • Our partnerships with digital record producers enable us to educate parents in the digital world.

The future….

We envisage a future of confident and empowered expectant mums, where fewer families will go through the heartache of losing a baby at any stage of pregnancy, and midwives feel able to offer the care they truly want to provide for all women.