When you’re expecting a baby, you prepare yourself for lack of sleep, dirty nappies, crying all night and being exhausted all day. You also indulge in the happy anticipation – building the cot, buying the smallest clothes and stocking up on tiny nappies.

Sadly, sometimes, instead of the happy outcome you have been hoping and planning for, the unexpected happens. Sometimes, even more sadly, the unexpected proves to have been avoidable.

At some point during the birthing process, things for our families went terribly wrong.

We have lost children, or have children who are now compromised. And we have become knowledgeable enough to pin these poor outcomes on the systemic failings of the maternity system in New Zealand.

Through no fault of our own, we are now faced with a future that is tainted by our past. Some of us have become experts in labour and birth. Some have become full time nursing experts, adept at suctioning secretions from our children’s airways or feeding them through tubes in their stomachs. Others can recite word for word Ministry of Health maternity policies and guidlelines. None of these things did we ever think we would know, or need to know. But we do, due to the failings of a fundamentally flawed system. We want to prevent these hard lessons for others.

There are two things that every affected family needs:

• The right supports in place for their circumstance
• The knowledge and confidence that, where ever possible, it will never happen again

Action to Improve Maternity (AIM) is a Charitable Trust that supports families where a birth tragedy has occurred which did not have to happen. Our work includes helping them to discover what happened to them and their child, walking them through the different (often complex) complaints procedures, sourcing free or low cost legal assistance and expert opinions, helping them get ACC cover – and then teaching them how to use it… We’ve sat beside families during coroner’s inquests, held hands at hospital bedsides, and have been honoured and deeply touched to support them through funerals. Through our website, we give these families a safe and special place to tell their story – this opportunity for these particular families has never existed before. We are also here long term to help prevent the preventable from occurring in the future.

AIM seeks to improve the quality and safety of the New Zealand maternity system.

• Every year in New Zealand, more than 600 babies die during and around childbirth. Many of these deaths are registered ’cause unknown’.
• In New Zealand, the Ministry of Health counts ‘live’ babies and ‘dead’ babies. There is no nationwide register for children injured or disabled at birth. Even the most severely brain injured children don’t count as such.
• In the 1960s New Zealand ranked amongst the top five countries in the developed world for our low infant death rate. We’re now in the bottom ten.
• You are twiceas likely to die as a pregnant or new mother in New Zealand than you are of being killed on the roads.
• 50%of all pregnancies in New Zealand require medical assistance for the safety of the mother and/or child.
• 15 years ago midwives had to be trained nurses – now they don’t. However they can now work independently and apart from any medical assistance.

AIM was formed by mums, dads and health professionals who want New Zealand to again have one of the lowest infant mortality and disability rates in the world. To accomplish this we need, at very least, a perinatal database that records the outcomes of every birth in New Zealand. The knowledge gained will help prevent tragedy striking more Kiwi families at what is meant to be a time of joy.

We want a system that will learn from it’s mistakes. We want a system that will ensure that everything is done right, every time. We want every child and every mother to have the birth and future they deserve.

Many aspects of our current system work well. It’s time to ensure it all does.

Add your voice to the call for change in the New Zealand maternity system.

Help us prevent the preventable.