Pregnancy can be a stressful time, full of unknowns, particularly for the first-time mother. Digging through the information available to find the most accurate and appropriate advice for your own situation can be extremely difficult.
The World Health Organization’s maternity mortality report estimated that in 2018, 300,000 women died during pregnancy or birth, and 5.3 million children are stillborn or die within 24 hours of birth.
The same report also states that the majority of maternal deaths are preventable and that a lack of information is one of the main causes that prevents women from receiving the care that they need.
Around a quarter of mothers in Europe do not receive sufficient or appropriate information, according to the results of the Safe Motherhood Survey 2016. Women from Romania and Spain were less likely to receive this information, as were younger mothers (aged under 20).
Worryingly, a further 23 per cent of women said they did not feel able to navigate the care landscape and the options available to them throughout their pregnancy; indeed, half of women surveyed in Germany said they felt this way.
Further support is needed for women seeking to navigate the care landscape in their own country during pregnancy.