Here’s what experts say should be in midwives’ new anti-racism training
Black and Asian women and babies are more likely to die during delivery. The Nursing and Midwifery Council hopes to change that
New anti-racism training for midwives must be implemented into “every single aspect” of learning and teach students to confront their own biases if it is to be effective, experts have warned.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), which approves and oversees midwifery programmes across the UK, announced last week that it would be working with universities to introduce anti-racism and bias awareness to the midwifery curriculum.
The training is currently being created and will be published later in 2026, with all universities to implement it at the start of the next academic year.
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Amina Hatia is a midwife who works as a cultural safety lead at London North West University Healthcare NHS Trust. She urged the NMC to implement anti-racism and bias training across all course materials — for example, midwives should be taught how the blood pressure disorder pre-eclampsia or diabetes can present in particular ways among Black and Asian women.
“It needs to be embedded at every single point, rather than a one-off session that says, ‘that’s it, we’ve done anti-racism training so you are no longer racist’,” Hatia said.
Figures released by MBRRACE-UK, which investigates deaths of women or babies who die during or shortly after pregnancy, show that Black women are three times as likely to die during pregnancy or in the postnatal period. In Asian women, mortality rates are 1.3 times what they are for white women. Black babies are also twice as likely to be stillborn, while Asian babies are 50% more likely to be stillborn.
The maternity charity Birthrights found that racist attitudes and behaviours, such as assigning stereotypes to ethnic groups, microaggressions and assumptions about risk based on race, were significant factors in poor maternity experiences in Black and Brown women.
Hatia — who also manages the midwifery service at Tommy’s, a pregnancy and baby loss charity — said the announcement of additional training was a welcome step, but just “one part of the picture” of addressing inequalities in maternity care.
Her training highlights racist tropes used against Black and Brown women, such as that Black women have a higher pain threshold than white women, and that Brown women exaggerate their pain.
“People will say, ‘I’ve never seen a Black woman be denied pain relief’, and they probably haven’t in the way they are looking for it. No doctor or midwife is going to say ‘no, because you are a black woman I won’t give you pain relief’.”
Instead, she said, “it’s people not being listened to, or not being offered the full range of pain relief. It may be that they are not transferred to the labour ward within an appropriate time period so that the epidural they said they wanted can be applied in a timely manner. That’s where that bias comes in.
“My concern is how this training is going to be implemented, because it requires experience and it requires midwives to look at their own power and privilege, which can be really uncomfortable.”
Baroness Shaista Gohir, chief executive of the Muslim Women’s Network UK, called for the training to address anti-Muslim hostility specifically in maternity care. “Muslim patients, particularly Muslim women, may still experience unequal treatment shaped by stereotypes and assumptions about their faith,” Gohir said.
She said the training should go beyond generic equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) training in favour of “bespoke, context-specific training tailored to particular areas of care where Muslim women and their babies often face poorer outcomes and avoidable harm”.
“When EDI training is designed in this targeted way, incorporating relevant, sector-specific case studies, it becomes far more effective in illustrating how prejudice impacts care in practice,” she said. “Generic EDI training alone risks losing impact, as many healthcare professionals may have become desensitised to it.”
The Nursing and Midwifery Council said the training would be designed with input from Black, Asian and ethnic minority people who have lived experience of poor outcomes in maternity services.
“Meaningful change requires genuine partnership from the outset with trusted voices within affected communities, particularly those already leading this work with established credibility and relationships,” said Dr Naomi Green, policy and public affairs officer at the British Islamic Medical Association.
“This training is a step in the right direction, but lasting improvement requires sustained structural change, accountability and engagement with the communities most affected.”
