Wales is pushing ahead with an ambitious programme to transform maternity and neonatal services, blending digital innovation with a renewed commitment to equity, workforce sustainability and the voices of women. Speaking at the Cardiff Maternity & Midwifery Festival 2025, Karen Jewell, Chief Midwifery Officer at the Welsh Government, outlined the progress made so far — and the work still to come.
The Cardiff Maternity & Midwifery festival 2025 took place in Cardiff this month. One of the keynote speakers was Karen Jewell, Chief Midwifery Officer at the Welsh Government, who outlined progress in the developments for maternity services across Wales.
A Clear Roadmap for Safer Care
Jewell reminded delegates that over the past three to four years Wales has built a strong strategic roadmap for maternity and neonatal care. Developed through the Maternity and Neonatal Safety Support Programme (MatNeoSSP), the roadmap sets out the system’s strengths and weaknesses and links directly to NHS Wales’ wider quality and safety framework.
“It’s about having a shared vision,” Jewell explained. “We now have a plan that not only diagnoses the challenges but provides the direction to meet them.”
Going Digital by 2026
One of the most transformative projects is Digital Maternity Cymru, which aims to deliver a fully digital maternity record by March 2026.
The new system will give women direct access to their records via an app, support timely referrals, and improve information sharing across health boards. Longer term, the ambition is to link maternity records with children’s health data and the Women’s Health Plan, ensuring continuity of care across a woman’s life.
“This isn’t just about digitising paperwork,” Jewell stressed. “It’s about improving women’s experience, reducing miscommunication, and using the data to really understand how services are performing.”
Tackling Inequality Through Law
Wales is also embedding maternity within its Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan, which is underpinned by legislation. The plan is driving work on curriculum reform, intersectionality, and workforce culture.
“Equity is not an add-on,” Jewell said. “It is central to how we deliver maternity services in Wales.”
Defining “What Good Looks Like”
A milestone was reached in February 2024 with the publication of a new quality statement for maternity and neonatal care. Jewell described it as setting out “what good looks like” for families.
If the statement is the “chocolate cake,” she said, then the detailed service specifications currently being developed are the “recipe” — the practical steps for health boards to follow.
Quarterly review meetings now track each health board’s delivery against these goals, keeping momentum and accountability at the centre of reform.
Choice and Geography
The Chief Midwifery Officer also defended the principle of choice of birthplace, even as services wrestle with staffing pressures and rural geography.
Some regions, such as Powys, have no district general hospital and rely heavily on birth centres and community-led midwifery. Protecting choice in these areas, Jewell argued, is fundamental to ensuring women’s rights in Wales.
From Data to Insight
While Wales collects large volumes of data, Jewell acknowledged the system has been “data rich but information poor.” Work is now underway to define a smaller set of key indicators that provide meaningful insight into quality of care.
She also called for balance in the way data is reported publicly: “We mustn’t lose sight of the fact that the majority of women in Wales have positive experiences of maternity care.”
Building the Future Workforce
Sustainability of the workforce remains a critical theme. The Perinatal Workforce Plan is designed to put the right people in the right roles, build strong multidisciplinary teams, and prepare services for emerging technologies.
“We are already talking about AI and ambient voice technology,” Jewell noted. “But at the heart of this must remain the midwife–woman relationship.”
Listening to Women
Perhaps most importantly, Jewell emphasised the centrality of women’s voices. The new All-Wales Perinatal Engagement Framework is rolling out tools that gather feedback at key points in the maternity journey, tailored to women’s experiences rather than generic NHS surveys.
In parallel, Maternity and Neonatal Voices Partnerships (MNVPs) are being strengthened, with paid chairs, training, and support from the national patient body Llais to ensure independence and sustainability.
A System in Transition
The message from Cardiff was clear: Wales is not shying away from the challenges facing maternity care but is tackling them head-on with a combination of digital innovation, legal commitment to equity, and structured engagement with women and families.
“It is about more than policy documents,” Jewell concluded. “It’s about real change in the way women experience care, and the confidence they can have in the services we provide.”
Watch the presentation
Maternity & Midwifery Forum
September 2025