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 4,600 babies are stillborn or die shortly after birth every year in the UK – around 13 every day. A report published in The Lancet medical journal concluded that a substantial proportion of stillbirths are potentially preventable, as many occur close to term. If babies at risk of being stillborn are identified, they can 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 help them feel in control of their pregnancy and confident in reporting any concerning symptoms to their maternity team without delay.

We are equally passionate about supporting midwives: keeping them up to date with current research and guidelines, and equipping them with training that aids consistent, safer 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, so midwives can offer the highest standard of care for all expectant parents.

Our impact so far….

• Over 2.3 million Wellbeing Wallets and Pregnancy Passports distributed to date.
• 300,000 wallets and passports now reach expectant parents every year.
• Our Pregnancy Passports have seen stillbirth reductions of up to 38% where they have been introduced.
• Helping save over 1,500 babies’ lives every year since 2012.

How we’re doing it….

Our Pregnancy Passports are given to expectant parents vis their midwife at the booking appointment. They contain the essential medical information that midwives and paramedics need to know instantly, such as blood group and risk factors, written inside – so it is always to hand in case the NHS app or digital notes cannot be accessed for any reason, including if an expectant parent has to transfer to a different trust that does not use the same digital record system. They also contain lots of essential pregnancy information, plus QR codes that link straight to our website – translated into 100 languages – so expectant parents are empowered throughout their pregnancy to have a safer pregnancy. Designed for trusts that are now digital or paper-light, they carry all of the Department of Health’s official safer pregnancy messaging and perfectly complement the NHS Saving Babies’ Lives Care Bundle. One trust reported a 38% reduction in stillbirths after introducing our Pregnancy Passports.

Our Wellbeing Wallets are designed to keep antenatal notes safe and are printed with important educational messages for a healthier pregnancy. The advice is regularly read whilst parents wait for appointments in antenatal clinics, making the knowledge second nature. They also help midwives start conversations with expectant parents on vital pregnancy topics such as monitoring babies’ movements and encourage parents to report concerns without delay. An initial audit showed that 91% of NHS trusts reported a moderate to significant reduction in stillbirth rates after introducing our Wellbeing Wallets.

Our MAMA Podcast brings expert voices and real parents’ experiences together, giving expectant parents trustworthy safer-pregnancy information they can listen to anytime, and giving healthcare professionals insight into what matters most to the families in their care.

Our training webinars for healthcare professionals, hosted with our legal partners, keep midwives and maternity teams up to date on the topics that matter – from informed consent and duty of candour to learning lessons from case law – so the whole maternity team can deliver safer care.

Our training videos for healthcare professionals provide accessible, expert-led education that midwives can watch and share, supporting consistent best practice across trusts.

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, so expectant parents receive the care they need much sooner than they may otherwise have done.

Our pictorial posters and educational leaflets are available free of charge and in various languages to empower expectant parents to have a safer pregnancy.

Our awareness posts on social media empower parents with safer-pregnancy messaging, so they know which 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, so trusts know that stillbirth can sometimes be avoidable and not just “one of those things”.

Our website and active social media communities encourage expectant parents to equip themselves with the knowledge they need to give their baby the best possible chance of arriving safely, and enable parents to learn from each other’s experiences.

Our partnerships with digital record producers enable us to educate parents in the digital world.

Campaigning for change….

We don’t just educate – we campaign. MAMA Academy is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) for Baby Loss and for Maternity, taking the voices of bereaved families and frontline maternity staff to Parliament. We have contributed to the National Maternity and Neonatal Inquiry, and we work constantly with the National Maternity Advisor and NHS England to improve maternity services and standardise care across the UK – because expectant parents deserve the same safe, consistent care wherever they live. We are also campaigning for a national fetal growth monitoring programme to end the postcode lottery in how babies’ growth is measured.

The future….

We envisage a future of confident, empowered expectant parents, where fewer families 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 families.