Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help improve understanding of the reasons for the rise in postpartum haemorrhage rates.

NHS England is working to improve the timely clinical response to obstetric haemorrhage through the Maternal Care Bundle, which aims to improve the management of haemorrhage through timely identification, escalation, and response to obstetric bleeding, along with ongoing, multidisciplinary review and learning.

Significant improvements in data coverage and data quality over recent years mean that in September 2025, 92% of National Health Service trusts were included in the analysis of Maternity Services Data Set birth and postpartum haemorrhage information, compared with 30% in September 2020. The referenced increase in postpartum haemorrhage rates may be influenced by this improvement in reporting in addition to any rise in clinical incidence. The Maternal Care Bundle will further improve the identification of haemorrhages over 1,500 millilitres by requiring providers to cumulatively measure blood loss, which is likely to further increase the reported rate in future years.