North Cumbria inpatient maternity care “significantly above the trust average” in national survey results

This blog is a repost from North Cumbria Integrated Care. You can read the original post here.

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North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) has performed “better than expected” in key areas of maternity care compared to other trusts across England, according to the results of a national maternity survey published today (Wednesday 10th December).

The Care Quality Commission has written to Chief Executive Trudie Davies to acknowledge that “the proportion of women who answered positively to questions about their care during labour and birth, and on the ward after the birth, was significantly above the trust average”.

Women who gave birth in January and February 2025 were surveyed about their experiences of care, from antenatal care, care during labour and birth, and post-natal care.

Compared to other NHS trusts, patient feedback was 'better than expected’ for the key area of ’staff caring for you'.

150 women who received inpatient maternity care from North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust (NCIC) responded to the survey. NCIC runs inpatient maternity services at the Cumberland Infirmary, West Cumberland Hospital, and Penrith Community Hospital. (NCIC also provides community maternity care, which was not included in this survey.)

Some questions that women in north Cumbria were particularly positive about include:

• Being treated with respect and dignity during labour and birth (9.6/10, better than expected compared to other trusts)

• Being treated with kindness and compassion during labour and birth (9.5/10, better than expected compared to other trusts)

• Attention during labour – if attention was needed during labour and birth, a member of staff was there to help (9.3/10 better than expected compared to other trusts)

• Confidence and trust in staff caring for you during labour and birth (9.3/10, better than expected compared to other trusts)

• Midwives or doctors being aware of your medical history during labour and birth (8.6/10, much better than expected compared to other trusts)

• Ability to get a member of staff to help when you needed it while in hospital after birth (8.8/10, much better than expected compared to other trusts)

Chief Nurse Gill Findley said:

"I am really pleased to see that women who have given birth using our maternity services feel that they were respected and treated with kindness. The positive feedback reflects the commitment, dedication, and care our maternity teams show every single day. We know that giving birth is one of the most critical times in the lives of mothers and babies, and we are passionate about providing the best possible care. Thank you to our colleagues for their hard work, and to everyone who took the time to complete the survey.”

You can read about a recent positive birth experience on our website from parents who recently welcomed their second son at Cumberland Infirmary, describing it as a “beautiful experience”: Birth was a “beautiful experience”: parents praise maternity at Cumberland Infirmary :: North Cumbria Integrated Care

National results are available here: Maternity survey 2025 - Care Quality Commission

NCIC results are here: North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust - Care Quality Commission

Benchmark results are here: All Files - NHS Surveys

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MVNP addition to the post:

the North Cumbria Trust Maternity came third nationally in the ‘Better than Expected results. 

A total of 119 NHS trusts in England took part in the 2025 Maternity Survey and 16,755 maternity service users who gave birth in February 2025 responded to the survey. This was a response rate of 39%.^[1] All women aged 16 years or over at the time of giving birth in February 2025 were eligible to take part (and in some cases, January 2025^[2]). National results can be found on our website.

This report identifies NHS trusts where experiences of care were better or worse than expected when compared with survey results across all trusts in England. The analysis method used in this report allows for an overall picture of performance across the survey, considering results for all evaluative (scored) questions simultaneously. It supplements the approach used in trust level benchmark reporting, which provides results for individual questions.

Each trust has been assigned one of five bands according to their overall performance across the survey: ‘much worse than expected’, ‘worse than expected’, ‘about the same’, ‘better than expected’ or ‘much better than expected’. Appendix A provides further information on the different approaches used to explore variation in people’s experience between trusts.

Five trusts nationally were categorised as achieving ‘better than expected’ results: North Cumbria Integrated Care was the third highest.

Tune in to ITV Border from 11th December to hear from our Chief Nurse, Dr Gill Findley, as she shares the fantastic results from our recent CQC maternity survey.

You can also hear from Abbie Lund, proud mum of two boys, who gave birth at Cumberland Infirmary and talks about her positive experience with our maternity services.

Well done to all our hard working maternity colleagues!