Maternity care review includes claim staff told one family member ‘Jews are sneaky’

The Government has said it will appoint a national maternity commissioner to drive change after a report concluded families have suffered from repeated failures in NHS care including cases of antisemitism said to be “embedded throughout the system.”

The “rapid review” into maternity care, led by Baroness Valerie Amos, reveals cases of antisemitism with one family member being told by staff that “Jewish people are sneaky”.

It calls for urgent change to the way women and families are treated, including when they phone in with concerns during pregnancy and labour.

It states:”Muslim and Jewish families received poor treatment from staff, which they felt was shaped by their religious affiliation.

“Jewish families similarly experienced staff being unhelpful or speaking to them aggressively.

“In a small number of cases, families reported more explicit antisemitic attitudes, one family reported that they were told by a member of staff that ‘Jewish people are sneaky’.

“As a result of these experiences, some families felt compelled to conceal their religious identity to receive better care.

“This included removing clothing that identified their religious identity or avoiding requests that might identify them as Muslim or Jewish.

“This shows how services did not make families feel welcome. Some families used doulas, to ‘act as a buffer’ between them and staff and ensure better culturally competent care.”

The report adds:”For both Muslim and Jewish families, cultural competence was not routinely built into care, resulting in care that did not fully meet their needs. Some Jewish families told us their religious identity was not acknowledged or considered at any point during their maternity and neonatal journey.”

It also reveals black women in the UK are almost three times more likely to die in the year after pregnancy than white women.

The risk is higher for Asian mums too.

Amos’s report includes recommendations on how the maternity and neonatal system can be redesigned to deliver fundamental change.

It calls for the NHS to treat racism, discrimination and inequality as a “critical maternity safety issue”, starting work immediately

Lady Amos said families should have the right to an independent investigation of their care when things go wrong and they do not agree with the findings of internal NHS reviews.

She pointed to the need to improve the culture in hospitals and teamworking between midwives, obstetricians and other medics, and suggested an overhaul of rotas to ensure obstetric consultants and anaesthetists are available on a delivery unit “for timely critical senior decision making and intervention 24 hours a day, seven days a week”.