The Care Quality Commission (CQC) maternity survey was published on Wednesday 10 December and highlights women’s experiences of antenatal, labour and postnatal care.
During 2025, a questionnaire was sent to all women who gave birth in February that year. Across the country 16,700 women took part and 98 women at Airedale NHS Foundation Trust took the opportunity to share their own experiences.
The survey asks women about their care at three different stages of their maternity journey: during antenatal care, labour and birth and postnatal care.
Airedale NHS Foundation Trust scored well for women’s experiences of mental health support during pregnancy, having trust and confidence in the team, their concerns being taken seriously, being offered personalised and individualised care to their circumstances and feeding advice after birth.
The trust also scored very highly for care during labour, with women feeling reassured that they were not being sent home when they were worried about themselves or their baby.
Director of Midwifery, Sarah Simpson and Miss Sumita Bhuiya, Clinical Director for Obstetrics and Gynaecology, said on behalf of the clinical leadership and Obstetric team:
“We want to thank everyone who shared their experiences for this survey, it helps us to understand how it feels to be cared for by our maternity service and to continually make the required improvements. We want to put women at the centre of the care we provide as we transform our service for the future, and this feedback is very much part of that.
We’re really pleased that the survey reflects how we support women’s mental health at this important time in their life, that they felt confident and trusting in the team caring for them and that we listen to their concerns and give care that’s personal to their own individual needs.
Our teams are always looking at ways to improve our services that are responsive to our service users needs and over the last year we have introduced a revised maternity assessment triage process, an In Reach Transitional Care model to reduce the separation of mothers and babies and we have plans next year to continue to improve our induction of labour pathway.
We do all of this by listening and working side by side with our Local Maternity, Neonatal Partnership Group and we’d like to thank them too for ensuring we’re focusing on what women need.
We understand that experiences of maternity care are all very different and so if any women or their families have any questions during their care, we would encourage them to contact us, their doctor or midwife who will be there to help.
This survey is just one of many ways that we listen, learn and improve and women can also share any feedback with our patient advice and liaison service or via the feedback form on our website.
If any women do want to get involved in any of our work, please get in touch with us by emailing anhsft.parenteducation@nhs.net.”
