- Conference
- 2026 National Women's Conference
- Date
- 14 October 2025
- Decision
- Carried
A recent report by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) found that disabled women face significant inequalities in maternal and neonatal outcomes.
20% or 2.9 million women of reproductive age in the UK are disabled and evidence shows that they have worse access to maternity care, more negative experiences and poorer outcomes than non-disabled women.
Key findings of the report include that disabled women in the UK:
• Have a 44% higher chance of experiencing stillbirth or neonatal mortality
• Are up to 60% more likely to have a caesarean birth
• Are up to 70% less likely to breast feed
• Are up to 111 times more likely to stay in hospital longer after giving birth
The report found that disabled women faced widespread challenges in accessing good quality maternity care due to a lack of accessible facilities and information and, shockingly, negative attitudes of healthcare providers.
Disabled women’s, including some off our own Disabled Members, experiences include maternity and postnatal units with:
• No accessible toilets or showers
• No space for wheelchairs
• No accessible information
• No provision or poor provision of BSL interpreters (in person/via a video link)
• No appropriate lighting to assist with lipreading
• No opportunity to see a birth centre before they go into labour
• No consideration of reasonable adjustments
The report also found that some disabled women have been asked by medical professionals if they ‘are sure they want to do this’ implying disabled people should not have children.
Conference, all women should be entitled to the best standard of maternity care possible. The needs of disabled pregnant women and new mothers must be considered in all maternity settings.
The report is calling for urgent action to make maternity care more accessible and inclusive for disabled women. It calls on the government to establish a UK committee to assess and improve maternity services for disabled women.
While we agree a review of maternity services for disabled women is needed our members who are pregnant or thinking of starting a family cannot afford to wait. They need action now.
Conference calls on National Women’s Committee to work with National Disabled Members Committee and the Health Service Group Executive to:
1)Produce guidance on how to request reasonable adjustments in maternity care
2)Work with the Labour Link to lobby for better funding for inclusive and accessible maternity care
3)Campaign for all staff who deliver maternity services to receive training on how to support disabled women during pregnancy and after delivery
