Author of England maternity care review ‘listened to wrong voices’, says adviser

Doctors say interventions have increased to help ensure the safety of mothers and babies at a time when the complexity of childbirth has risen. Photograph: Natalia Deriabina/Getty Images View image in fullscreen Doctors say interventions have increased to help ensure the safety of mothers and babies at a time when the complexity of childbirth has risen. Photograph: Natalia Deriabina/Getty Images Author of England maternity care review ‘listened to wrong voices’, says adviser Dr Bill Kirkup said section of Valerie Amos’s report criticising ‘normal birth ideology’ was removed before publication The author of a major inquiry into maternity care altered its final report to remove criticism of “normal birth ideology”, one of her expert advisers claims. Dr Bill Kirkup said Valerie Amos had “listened to the wrong voices” before a section outlining the potential risks of encouraging women to have a vaginal birth “disappeared” from the final version of her government-commissioned report . The section was removed even though “a significant number of people” had already approved the wording of that part of the document, he said. “I don’t think it’s right that we should push this issue under the covers. This is a patient safety danger and I think it should be called out as such,” he told the BBC . Kirkup, a widely respected expert in childbirth safety, resigned as one of the 12 expert clinical advisers to Lady Amos’s nine-month-long review of problems in maternity care in England and how to improve it. He quit eight days before the former Labour cabinet minister published her 174-page report on Tuesday. Advocates of normal birth, including many midwives, believe women giving birth should do so as far as possible vaginally, and without drugs or medical interventions such as the use of forceps or delivering the baby by caesarean section. England has unusually high rates of both procedures by international standards. Doctors say such intervention has increased to help ensure the safety of mothers and babies at a time when the complexity of childbirth has risen, as a result of older motherhood and maternal obesity, and delays in births can lead to litigation. The Amos report states: “Dr Bill Kirkup decided to stand down from his role on 22 June 2026 as one of the expert advisers for the National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation as a result of not being able to agree on the specific wording of the conclusions on normal birth ideology for inclusion in the final report.” Kirkup worked as an obstetrician and gynaecologist before running or assisting with a number of major inquiries, including into the Morecambe Bay and East Kent maternity scandals . He told the BBC the dispute was about more than just wording. He made clear that he stood down because he did not believe that the amended final version of the report properly reflected the dangers of normal birth, which previous reports have found contributed to babies suffering avoidable harm and dying. “A signific