The MJA Symposium on 17 June will feature an exclusive preview of new research from the Nuffield Trust examining who needs emergency hospital care in the year after giving birth.
Dr Sarah Scobie, deputy director of research at the Nuffield Trust, will present embargoed findings from an analysis drawing on English hospital datasets to explore how postnatal use of emergency services varies by deprivation and ethnic group.
The analysis will also look at what types of emergency contact mothers are having and why, and what factors during the pre-conception and pregnancy periods are associated with differences in emergency care use after birth.
The full report is due for publication in early July, giving attendees a chance to hear the embargoed headline findings first and ask questions about the research.
The question of who needs emergency care after childbirth, sits at the heart of current debates on this year’s theme of The State of Maternity: Safety, Inequality and Culture.
And it’s not the only exclusive report that MJA members and invited guests will have access to on June 17th at the Symposium being held in partnership with The King’s Fund.
A packed programme
The Government’s first-ever national maternity adviser, Michelle Welsh MP, will deliver the keynote address at the top of a packed schedule.
Other high-profile presentations include:
- A new, as yet unpublished report from Kirsty Kitchen, director of The Birth Companions Institute on the needs of pregnant women and mothers under probation supervision.
- Professor Marian Knight director of the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford and national lead for MBRRACE-UK on how evidence can more effectively guide practice and what questions journalists should be asking.
- Professor Mary Dixon-Woods of THIS Institute, at the University of Cambridge, setting out how organisational degradation happens and how to spot the warning signs.
- Dr Louise Page, clinical director of Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigation (MNSI) outlining how they are including newly developed risk scores on health equity into investigations in maternity and neonatal care and what it has shown.
Several journalists, including Hannah Barnes from The New Statesman, Tobi Thomas from the Guardian and Emily Townsend from HSJ will discuss how they carried out vital investigations into various aspects of maternity care.
Catherine Roy, author of Author of Maternity: An Ongoing British Scandal will also be speaking about her work.
The day closes with a panel discussion chaired by Theo Clarke on supporting families fighting for justice through telling their stories, featuring Shaun Lintern of The Sunday Times, Kim Thomas of the Birth Trauma Association, campaigner Dr Jack Hawkins, and Sanja Strkljevic of Leigh Day.
The symposium is free to attend for MJA members. Eligible journalists who are not yet members are welcome to join the MJA to attend.
We will need to finalise numbers by the 10th June, so please head to our event page to grab your place and find out more details about the programme.
Lunch will be provided and there will be a post-event networking session with free drinks thanks to support from Blue Lozenge.
We are very grateful to Leigh Day for their sponsorship which has enabled us to hold this prestigious event.
