Speaking ahead of the publication of the report, Labour MP Michelle Welsh said it was “pure luck” that her own baby had survived birth.
“When it comes to luck, as to whether your baby survives or not, then that is a true indication of a system that is truly, truly failing,” the MP for Sherwood Forest and the government’s first maternity adviser told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
View image in fullscreenThe front cover of the Ockenden report ahead of a press conference at Crowne Plaza Hotel Nottingham. Photograph: Jacob King/PAWhen asked whether there was a will within government to change things, she said:
double quotation markI feel that there is a momentum. I do feel that there is a will.
I mean, I absolutely make sure that I am listened to. I haven’t got in within those doors to sit there quiet and just nod my head. I’m absolutely out there, at the forefront, being very, very loud and clear about the fact that we do need the funding.
But funding alone is not going to solve this crisis. There needs to be huge systematic change. The government has to be bold in the policies that it makes, because tinkering around the edges will not solve this crisis.
And some of these organisations involved are going to have to face these truths, and we are going to have to deal with this head on.”
