Reducing Black maternal health inequalities: building health, wellbeing and real solutions together

Background

While the UK remains one of the safest places in the world to give birth, Black women and birthing people experience health inequalities in maternity and neonatal services. Data shows that Black women and birthing people are more likely to die in childbirth, more likely to have a traumatic birth, and report poorer experiences of maternity and neonatal care.

NHS South East London and Impact on Urban Health have formed a partnership that seeks to work with communities to re-build trust and find and fund solutions to these inequalities. We will bring together Black mothers and birthing people with maternity and neonatal services in South East London to collectively decide on and deliver fully funded pilot interventions.

Black Maternal Health Expert Reference Group

This work is guided by a South East London Black Maternal Health Expert Reference Group made up of local Black mothers and birthing people, leaders of community organisations, and clinicians and service managers from the NHS. Membership of the Group includes representatives from The Motherhood Group, 5 X MORE, Southwark Maternity Voices Partnership, Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Lewisham & Greenwich Trust, South London & Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, and King’s College London.

How we are listening to Black mothers and birthing people?

Our early conversations with Black mothers and other experts have revealed that many feel that a lot of listening has already been done and that there is extensive data, insight and other evidence collected to diagnose the problems Black women and birthing people and their babies are experiencing. The people we engaged were now keen to see action and funding to translate this knowledge into meaningful, positive change.

For this reason, we started our project with a solutions-focused workshop that brought together Black mothers and birthing people with NHS staff to collectively decide on solutions that will then be further developed and allocated funding through our Black Maternal Health Expert Reference Group. Solutions could include some of the great working already happening in our communities, or completely new innovations.

The first Reducing Black Maternal Health Inequalities workshop took place on 19th June 2025, at the Liberation Centre in Brixton. We will shortly be updating this page with the outputs from the workshop, which in turn will shape the commissioning by our Expert Reference Group of a series of projects seeking to reducing Black women's and birthing people's maternal health inequalities.

Facilitated by JRNY Consulting and Black Mothers Matter, the event aimed to co-design real solutions to the healthcare inequalities Black mothers and birthing people face in maternity and neonatal care. Several of these ideas will be funded by the ICB and Impact on Urban Health’s Partnership, with a focus on community-led delivery.

The facilitators adopted a compassionate approach and were supported by a local artistic facilitator Moi Tu, helping participants to feel safe and generate a good number of relevant solutions across all stages of the maternity and neonatal journey. Watch this short video to learn more about our workshop.

You can read a briefing document providing an overview of the workshop and solutions-design phase of this programme of work. It may be of particular interest to individuals and organisations with an interest in applying for funding to deliver the work.

Selection of the final solutions to take forward now sits with the South East London Black Maternal Health Expert Reference Group, comprised of community-based leaders including the founders of Five X More and Motherhood Group and representatives from our Maternity & Neonatal Voice Partnerships, alongside senior stakeholders from NHS maternity providers.

Funding opportunities will launch soon. To find out more about the project and to sign-up for regular updates.

How you can get involved?

If you would like to be kept informed about project developments and future opportunities to be involved please sign up here and we will add you to our mailing list.