Unacceptable racism, unsafe wards and ‘too fat’ to have a baby: Shocking report lays bare failures in NHS maternity services
Black and Asian women face “unacceptable racism”, patients have been left lying in pain, and a mother was told she was “too fat to have children”, a damning review exposing failures in NHS maternity units has found.
A national maternity and neonatal investigation (NMNI), led by Baroness Valerie Amos, found staff shortages, capacity issues, racism and discrimination and lack of accountability when things go wrong meant women and babies across the country were being failed.
The review, which followed interviews with 400 families and accounts from 8,000 people, found shocking examples of racism, include Asian women stereotyped as “princesses” and black women’s pain not being taken seriously.
It also highlighted the poor condition of hospitals, with rooms usuable due to leaking roofs and fire hazards, leaving women forced to give birth in corridors. In one hospital women who needed an assisted vaginal delivery had to deliver their babies with the door of their room open due to a lack of space.
“It is inconceivable that anyone would choose to give birth in such a manner. We have to ask ourselves how this can be regarded as acceptable in 2026?” the report questioned.
Baroness Amos’ findings uncovered a slew of other failings, including:
- “Stretched” maternity services forced to delay inductions and planned c-sections
- Poor bereavement care with patients taken through a delivery suite with their dead baby, hearing other mothers in labour
- Families “disregarded” or not listened to during pregnancy and labour
- Women left to “wrongly blame themselves if their babies are harmed or die”
- Young families facing “judgment and discriminatory attitudes” due to their age
- One woman who was told she was “too fat too have children”
In the foreword to her interim report, published on Thursday, Baroness Amos said “time and time again” families and staff see the same issues repeated despite numerous reviews and calls for change. “This cycle must stop,” she said.
The damning testimonies come amid a wider crisis in maternity services across the UK, with reviews into failures and deaths at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals Trust, East Kent NHS Trust, Nottingham University Hospitals Foundation Trust and Morecambe Bay Hospitals NHS Trust.
The Amos inquiry found women pointing to a “postcode lottery” of care, with Baroness Amos agreeing “this looks like a fragmented service”.
She said: “We have heard about families being disregarded and not listened to during pregnancy and labour, a lack of kindness and compassion, and reluctance on the part of trusts and professionals to admit mistakes and say sorry when things have gone wrong…
“We have seen maternity and neonatal services trying to respond in difficult circumstances and dealing with competing pressures but too often failing to deliver the safe care that women, families and babies expect and deserve, at times with devastating consequences.”
Shocking levels of racism and discrimination were uncovered, which Baroness Amos said were of “great concern”.
They include Asian women being stereotyped as “princesses” with staff implying they are unable to cope with pain, and one hospital where a staff member told trainees “the bloody Asian ones just go on and on and on”.
Black women told the inquiry they felt they were not believed when complaining about their pain, as if they had “tough skin” and could tolerate it. One black woman said that when “begging” for help, she was made to feel like an “aggressive, angry black woman”.
In another example, a Muslim parent said she was told by a nurse to “turn it down; I don’t want to hear it”, as she listened to a recitating of the Quran.
Reports of discrimination also featured among LGBTQ+ families and those who didn’t speak English.
They included one family who weren’t provided with translator who only found out their baby had died when they heard “baby dead, wife really poorly”.
The report also highlighted “striking shortcomings” in the culture and leadership of maternity services, with some staff reporting they have been so heavily impacted by public scrutiny that they had been forced to “hide their name badges or uniforms in public or lie about their jobs when meeting people outside of work”.
Michelle Welsh MP, for Sherwood Forest, who chairs an all-party parliamentary group on maternity services, called for urgent reform to turn services around.
She said: “For far too long, women and babies – especially those from Black, Asian and deprived communities – have faced unacceptable disparities in outcomes. If we are serious about rebuilding trust, we must confront that reality head-on and deliver genuinely equitable care.
“But this interim report cannot simply sit on a shelf. It must mark the beginning of meaningful, system-wide reform. Families deserve more than warm words; they deserve action.”
Baroness Amos will publish her first set of recommendations in Spring 2026, and a final report will be published later in the year. The public call for families to share their experiences remains open until March 17.
NHS England and the Department for Health and Social Care have been approached for comment.
