The risk of a baby dying or being harmed before, during or after birth is higher in the UK than in similar countries. This is why the government set a target to halve the number of mothers and babies who die and are injured around the time of birth by 2025.
When a mother or baby dies, or a baby is injured around the time of birth but survives, the care they have received that led to that injury or death is reviewed by healthcare professionals. Not every family affected by these issues, may know this happens, but it is part of mandatory care in England.
These ‘review’ or ‘investigative’ processes are different to an autopsy or postmortem. Their aim is to give families answers about what happened, and to understand where care is poor and needs to be improved to prevent it happening to another family in the future. These processes happen even if it may be clear why the baby or mother died.
The two key investigative and review processes used in the England, which were set up in 2018, to do a review or investigation after a mother or baby dies or is harmed are the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) maternity investigations (now called Maternity and Newborn Safety Investigations (MNSI)), and the Perinatal Mortality Review Tool (PMRT) since 2018.
The Maternity Investigations and Review Tools process evaluation (MATREP) research study is gathering insights from families, parents and healthcare professionals working in maternity units about these two processes.
This study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
What are the aims of this study?
We want to find out whether current investigative and review processes after a baby or mother dies, or a baby is harmed in labour, are effective, meet the needs of parents and families, and improve maternity care by making it safer.
MATREP aims to:
- Look at how well the reviews and investigations are working.
- Look at the experiences of parents and families who have been through the reviews and investigations.
- See if learning from the reviews and investigations helps towards the improvement of safety in maternity care.
- Understand what families and services require for the reviews and investigations to work properly.
What does the study involve?
We will interview a wide selection of parents or family members, and healthcare professionals. Interviews will be done by experienced researchers who will be supervised by senior experts in the area of family support and maternity safety.
If you are a parent or family member, you can complete our online survey to tell us about your views and experiences.
See more information on what the study involves.
Learn about who can and can’t get involved with the study.
Who is doing this study?
This study is being carried out by researchers from The University of Manchester and the University of Oxford, with patient and public involvement (PPI).
What is our project timeline?
The MATREP project began in November 2023 and is due to finish in May 2025.
- November 2023 to March 2024: Study set-up.
- April 2024 to January 2025: Data collection and ongoing analysis.
- February 2025 to April 2025: Data analysis and write-up.
- April 2025 to May 2025: Sharing findings.
Contact us
Get in touch with us to find out more about MATREP.
Email: matrep@manchester.ac.uk
X (formerly Twitter): @matrepeval
This study/project is funded by the NIHR Policy Research Programme (NIHR Reference: NIHR20424).
The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.
Contact Us
Email: matrep@manchester.ac.uk
