We are committed to amplifying your voice, to ensure your stories and experiences are heard by politicians and decision-makers. To make it happen, though, we need your help. Later this month, Westminster MPs will meet in Parliament and spend an hour and a half debating maternity services in England. They will be able to raise any issue to do with maternity services and a health minister will have to address the points they raise and answer their questions too. That’s a whole 90 minutes of parliamentary time on nothing but maternity services. 

The RCM is already setting up meetings with MPs and their advisors as well as preparing a briefing to send to MPs ahead of the debate. One thing that can make a real difference, however, is midwives, student midwives, midwifery apprentices, midwifery academics and researchers, maternity support workers – the whole midwifery community – right across the country getting in touch with their MP to ask them to take part. It is one thing for Members of Parliament to hear from us, but what really reaches MPs is hearing directly from their constituents… hearing from you. 

There are midwives and MSWs living and working in every constituency in the land as well as student midwives, midwifery apprentices and midwifery academics and researchers at universities right across the country too. Emailing your MP and asking them to take part in this debate, telling them what’s important to you and what you would like them to speak about in Parliament, could spur many into doing so. You know the pressures maternity services are under, from too few staff on shift to working in services that aren’t physically fit for purpose. Maybe you’re a student feeling the impact of tuition fees and loans on your personal finances, and you’re working jobs to help ends meet. Let your MP know, and be frank with them.  

So that they know exactly the debate you are talking about, tell them that it is in Westminster Hall on Tuesday 25 February at 9.30am. It has been secured by Liberal Democrat MP for Chichester Jess Fuller-Brown. You can send them this link. 

Finding out your MP’s email address is easy. Just click here, input your postcode and up pops their profile, including their contact information. Emailing is the quickest, easiest way to get in touch with them. It is a good idea to state in your first sentence that you are a constituent, and include your postal address so that they know you are. 

 If they have heard from you then it will also encourage them to read our briefing when that drops into their inbox. All of this activity helps to amplify the voice of midwives, MSWs, student midwives, midwifery apprentices as well as midwifery academics and researchers – the whole midwifery community. 

Your MP might be a Government minister or even the Speaker, in which case they won’t be able to speak in the debate. If they do come back and say that, ask them to write to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care with your concerns. They can do that whatever their position. 

It is really helpful for us to know how they respond, and especially if they plan to speak. You can email me at stuart.bonar@rcm.org.uk with any information you pick up. 

This is a crucial moment for maternity care. Labour swept into office last July on a manifesto that included several commitments to improve maternity services. The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care told Parliament that maternity is top of the list of things that keeps him awake at night, something he has said several times now. Improving the quality and safety of maternity services features in NHS England’s national priorities for 2025/26, published at the end of January. All of this comes as the Government draws up its 10 Year Health Plan for England. 

This debate therefore, where a health minister will have to listen and respond to what MPs from all parties have to say comes at a critical time. It is an excellent opportunity not just for the RCM as an organisation but for every member, particularly in England, to email their MP and try to mobilise them to speak up in Parliament for better maternity services. 

We will report back on what happens in the debate on 25 February, but reast assured we are working hard to get your voices heard in Parliament.