Wes Streeting has abandoned pregnant women at the worst possible moment

Every change in leadership at the Department of Health resets the conversation. A new Health Secretary arrives, priorities shift, briefings begin again, and the machinery of government disappears back into months of reviews, consultations and investigations. Meanwhile, women continue to wait for a maternity system that is safe, properly funded and fit for purpose.

That is what makes this moment so worrying.

To be fair to Streeting, he inherited a broken system and, unlike many politicians before him, he publicly acknowledged that it was broken. But naming a crisis and fixing one are two very different things.

The biggest concern is that maternal mortality rose on his watch. At the same time, we saw yet more reports and investigations commissioned into maternity care. But women do not need another report telling them the system is failing. They already know that. What they need is action.

Over the last decade, hundreds of recommendations have already been made to improve maternity care. Yet very few have been meaningfully implemented. The problem is no longer a lack of evidence. It is a lack of delivery.

That failure has been especially stark in maternal mental health.

The leading cause of death for women during pregnancy and in the year after birth is suicide. Maternal mental health should therefore be at the forefront of healthcare policy. Instead, it continues to be treated as something secondary, something that can be pushed aside when budgets tighten or priorities change.

One of the most alarming decisions during Streeting’s time as Health Secretary was the removal of the perinatal mental health target from NHS planning guidance. That target existed to drive investment into maternal mental health services and improve support for women during and after pregnancy. Once it disappeared, so did the pressure to prioritise funding.

At a time when women were already struggling to access support, the message this sent was devastating.

The system is clearly not working. Many women still feel unable to speak honestly about their mental health during pregnancy or at postnatal appointments. Recent figures suggest around 70 per cent hide or downplay their symptoms when asked. Others who do ask for help face waiting lists stretching into months.

Women are suffering in silence while services remain overwhelmed and under-resourced.

From my perspective, working in maternal wellbeing, this situation has not improved. If anything, it has become worse.

Now, with another change in leadership, there is a serious risk that we go backwards again. We have already had the reviews, recommendations, and warnings. What is missing is implementation.

Britain does not have a knowledge problem when it comes to maternity care. It has a political will problem.

And until maternal health and maternal mental health stop being treated as issues that can always wait until later, women will continue paying the price.

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Anastasia Shubareva-Epshtein is Founder & CEO of Carea, a pregnancy and postnatal wellbeing platform supporting women’s mental and physical health before, during and after conception.

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