By Katrin McEntee – Strategic Lead – Right to Health
The right to health means everyone should receive good quality care, yet this is still not the reality for many women and people who have been pregnant. This International Women’s Day is a moment to reflect on the Interim Report of the Independent Investigation into Maternity and Neonatal Services in England, published in February 2026. Led by Baroness Amos, the review responds to longstanding concerns about safety, quality and inequalities in maternity care.
I count myself among those who experienced a traumatic birth due to poor quality care. What stays with me most is not being listened to and having my right to make decisions about my own body ignored. Although the service later apologised, it could not undo the harm.
The investigation has heard directly from over 400 families, received more than 8,000 public responses and gathered wide ranging evidence from staff. The experiences shared so far reveal significant human rights concerns, particularly around the right to health.
The right to health is protected by Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), ratified by the UK in 1976. It requires states to secure the best possible standard of healthcare and address the wider determinants of health. The UN’s AAAQ framework helps assess this duty by examining whether care is available, accessible, acceptable, and of good quality. The interim report raises concerns across all four areas:
- Availability: Capacity pressures across the maternity pathway limit the availability of care. The report cites severe staffing shortages, insufficient physical spaces, and inconsistency in birth choices.
- Accessibility: Maternity services must be accessible without discrimination, yet the investigation identifies pervasive racism and inequality. Babies born to Black Women are more than twice as likely to be stillborn and maternal and neonatal mortality rates are double in the most deprived areas. Women described racially stereotyped assumptions affecting assessments of their symptoms and pain. Some families lacked access to interpreters, including British Sign Language, limiting their ability to receive appropriate care.
- Acceptability: The report highlights many examples of unacceptable care, including rooms too small for staff and equipment and doors left open during births to accommodate equipment. In some cases, clinical decisions were influenced by missing or incomplete records. The report also notes that staff experience racism and discrimination, affecting workplace culture and the care provided.
- Quality: The report identifies multiple risks to safety and clinical quality, including community midwives being redeployed to unfamiliar labour wards, inadequate staffing in triage and day units, and poor quality buildings.
The right to health is also partly protected by the Human Rights Act 1998, which requires public bodies to act compatibly with human rights. Experiences shared in the interim report such as people not being listened to, safety concerns, and clear discrimination, suggests that these rights are at risk across maternity and neonatal services.
The final report is expected in Spring this year. Given the systemic concerns already identified, Just Fair hopes the recommendations embed a clear human rights framework. Placing human rights at the heart of maternity reform is essential to building person centred, rights respecting, community informed services. This must be backed by meaningful involvement of people using maternity and neonatal services, adequate funding and rights-based training so staff can provide the safest and most compassionate care possible.
This International Women’s Day, join us in calling for maternity care that respects, protects and fulfils the rights of all women and pregnant people.
The public call for evidence remains open until 17 March 2026 for women and families who wish to contribute. Visit our right to health webpage to find out more about Just Fair’s work to champion the right to health or consider joining the right to health subgroup which is part of the UK Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Network, chaired by Just Fair.
Background image by Nikita Abuya
