{"id":777152,"date":"2026-09-20T21:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777152\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T21:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T21:08:10","slug":"thousands-of-pregnant-women-in-england-are-reporting-domestic-abuse-midwives-are-struggling-to-cope-domestic-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/777152\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of pregnant women in England are reporting domestic abuse. Midwives are struggling to cope | Domestic violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

About 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse are estimated to be made to maternity services in England<\/a> every year, analysis has found.<\/p>\n

The figures are likely to be an underestimate of the true scale of disclosures, according to experts, highlighting the role maternity professionals play in identifying abuse.<\/p>\n

About 3.3% of maternity bookings made within NHS<\/a> trusts across England involved a disclosure of current or non-recent domestic abuse.<\/p>\n

Applying this proportion to national NHS maternity bookings activity suggests there are approximately 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse made within maternity services in England every year.<\/p>\n

Of the 118 trusts contacted by the charity the For Baby\u2019s Sake Trust<\/a>, 74 provided usable data, and the figures are based on a three-year average of the most recent data available.<\/p>\n

Gill Walton, the chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, said the findings \u201clay bare\u201d something that midwives already know from their day-to-day practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cMidwives are often the only professional a pregnant woman sees regularly and alone, which makes them uniquely placed to spot the signs of domestic abuse and respond with care,\u201d Walton said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut recognising a disclosure is only the first step \u2013 staff need proper, specialist training to know how to respond and services need the time and resources to follow through with support, so that no disclosure is ever a missed opportunity to protect a parent and their baby.<\/p>\n

Experts have also called for midwives to receive adequate support and training on handling such domestic abuse disclosures, while also working long hours on busy maternity wards that can also face staff shortages.<\/p>\n

\u201cMidwives and other maternity staff play such a crucial role when it comes to reporting disclosures of domestic violence which are made to them. However, maternity staff also need better support so they know what the next steps are regarding what to do with these disclosures,\u201d Veronica Oakeshott, the interim head of external affairs at Women\u2019s Aid, said.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThey\u2019re already facing immense pressure working on busy maternity wards, so it\u2019s essential that they receive adequate support and training on how to handle these disclosures moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judith Rees, the chief operating officer and designated safeguarding lead at For Baby\u2019s Sake Trust<\/a>, said: \u201cHaving worked as a midwife, health visitor and nurse across 33 years within the NHS, I know how important the relationship between a maternity professional and a parent can be. Creating the right opportunity to ask about domestic abuse, and knowing how to respond when someone says \u2018yes\u2019, can be life-changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cMidwives need to understand the impact domestic abuse can have on a parent and their baby, be able to recognise risk and respond safely, and know where to go for specialist support. Pregnancy and the early postnatal period give us a critical window to intervene, and when we get that response right, we have an opportunity to improve outcomes for parents and babies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kate Brintworth, the chief midwifery officer for NHS England, said: \u201cAll staff working in NHS maternity and neonatal services are committed to ensuring that any disclosure of domestic abuse will be met with compassion, sensitivity and clear options for support. Midwives receive mandatory safeguarding training, alongside specialist training on how to ask sensitive questions about abuse, and can refer women to specialist domestic abuse services for support with issues such as housing and legal advice where needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline<\/a> on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women\u2019s Aid<\/a>. In the US, the domestic violence hotline<\/a> is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In Australia, the national family violence counselling service<\/a> is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"About 20,000 disclosures of domestic abuse are estimated to be made to maternity services in England every year,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-777152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}