Letter from Cllr Laura Hall-Wilson in support of Maternity Choices
From: Laura Hall-Wilson (South Cotswolds)
Date: 29 May 2026 at 12:20:54 BST
To: paul.hodgkinson
Cc: catherine.j.forrester
Subject:Fwd: Letter from Cllr Hall-Wilson - Maternity in GloucestershireDear Paul,
I hope you’re well and thank you for supporting the reopening of midwife led birthing units in Gloucestershire. I am however extremely committed the reopening doesn’t not go far enough and is in fact a defacto closing of Stroud Maternity Unit.
I have attached my letter below from last month. It would be good to hear your thoughts. I am extremely concerned about this decision for mothers and babies and think there is a genuine risk of babies being born on the side of the road or at home without sufficient care.
My 2 boys were precipitous labours, they were born naturally and very healthy in under 2 hours in Gloucester but with a third I might not be so lucky to make it!! My option would be a home birth but with only 3 midwives available in the county this is only an option if no one else in the whole of Gloucestershire needs them. I hope my real life example (in brief) indicates the risk.
We need to be much much stronger on this to make the NHS in Gloucestershire see sense and give mothers the choice they need.
I look forward to your thoughts.
Kind regards
Laura
Begin forwarded message:
From: Laura Hall-Wilson
Date: 6 May 2026 at 12:44:57 BST
To: Shane DEVLIN, Kate Usmar, Douglas BLAIR, Bridget Rosser
Subject:Letter from Cllr Hall-Wilson - Maternity in GloucestershireDear All,
Please see attached.
Kind regards
Laura
Cllr Laura Hall-Wilson
Cotswold District Council - Tetbury with Upton
Douglas Blair – CEO, Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation
Shane Devlin - CEO, NHS Gloucestershire ICB
Matt Holdaway – Chief Nurse, Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Cllr Dr Kate Usmar – Chair, Gloucestershire Health and Wellbeing Board
Wednesday 6th May 2026
BY EMAIL – To all.
Dear All,
Firstly, thank you again for your engagement on the issue of Cirencester Hospital, I am very
grateful for your time. I am writing again so soon after our last meeting as another healthrelated
issue has arisen, this time with maternity care in Gloucestershire, although this is
not a new issue.
The changes being proposed by the trust across the county are wholly unacceptable to
mothers and midwives and do not address the concerns they have about the current
arrangements.
I joined mothers and their babies from across the county at Stroud Maternity Hospital last
Monday 27th April to hear from those campaigning to end the suspension of home births in
the county and provide properly staffed, midwife led care, and I am only too happy to add
my voice to their campaign.
I recently travelled to Westminster to show my support for the debate on appointing a
maternity commissioner to improve maternity care for mums and babies. You will be aware
a 2024 parliamentary birth trauma inquiry recommended a Maternity Commissioner be
appointed alongside a National Maternity Strategy to ensure mums and their babies were
safe and looked after with professionalism and compassion.
While most births in the UK are safe, and we have a dedicated and experienced team of
midwives for whom we should be very grateful, the awful facts are the maternal death rate
in the UK is one of the highest in western Europe, and UK stillbirth rates are also high.
Secondly, the NHS currently spends more on payouts for medical negligence than on the
entire frontline maternity service budget – this is not good enough.
We must listen to mums and professionals in Gloucestershire to improve this situation.
Having choice and control over childbirth significantly improves maternal psychological
outcomes, increasing satisfaction and reducing trauma, even when birth plans must
change for safety reasons. Women who exercise agency over their birth setting and
interventions report higher self-esteem, better bonding, and more positive experiences.
2
I would most grateful if you could outline to me what steps you have taken to ensure that
choice in birth will be facilitated in the county including reversing the suspension of home
births, fully staffing midwife led units and keeping them open with midwives on site 24/7 –
babies come when they want to come not according to a timetable – the choice must
always be there.
On the changes to postnatal care, requiring mothers to attend clinic based postnatal care
from day 3, can I ask what risk assessments were undertaken as to the impact of these
changes on breastfeeding rates and the unequitable impact on already disadvantaged
mothers, given the Trust's duty to tackle health inequalities.
Properly staffing and empowering community midwifes is critical to continuity of carer
(CoC) across pregnancy birth and post-natal. This is so important to build trust and for the
same person to pick up subtle changes in a woman’s health during pregnancy.
The NHS have already committed to moving away from fragmented care and making CoC
a default maternity model with national assurance and measurement in their 2021/22 NHS
England guidance - this doesn’t seem to fit with what is being proposed in Gloucestershire.
Can you explain what more you can do to facilitate this?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
Cllr Laura Hall-Wilson