Health chief holds back tears over maternity failings

THE CHIEF executive of Swansea Bay University Health Board held back tears as she said sorry to women who were let down before, during and after they gave birth.

- RICHARD YOULE

Abigail Harris said the health board was very grateful to the 1,000-plus women and families who had taken part in an independent review of maternity and neonatal services.

Ms Harris said the power of their words was “really humbling” and she apologised to those affected, some of whom, she said, had undergone traumatic and life-changing experiences. “We are so very sorry for this,” she said.

She was speaking at a specially convened health board meeting just after the publication of the final report of the independent review, led by chairwoman Dr Denise Chaffer.

As we reported yesterday, it found that while many women reported a mostly positive experience of pregnancy and birth, some had and continue to have a poor experience.

Some went further and described examples of severe birth trauma.

Although some of these examples predated 2024-2025, the review said there were some recent instances of similar concerns.

Mothers-to-be and new mums reported trauma and fear, feeling ignored and that compassion was lacking. The review team heard from around 1,180 mothers and families.

Dr Chaffer presented the main findings around clinical care, governance, and leadership and staffing at the July 15 meeting.

“This is a really difficult report for us,” she said. “It's very, very important to us that this (review) is the voice of the families. My absolute wish is that their voices matter.”

The review had been commissioned by the health board in response to concerns raised by Welsh Government health inspectors, by families and by benchmarking data which showed it was an outlier for stillbirths and neonatal deaths in 2019, 2020 and 2021 and then again in 2023.