It is hard to find the words to describe the agony for those who have experienced preventable baby loss, injury or maternal death. Understandably, families who have been through this have campaigned relentlessly for local and national investigations. Every family deserves to know what caused their loss or trauma, but current and past reviews have failed to deliver on resolution and accountability.

The vital debate about how to ensure safe maternity care has intensified since the publication of two reports, led by Valerie Amos and Donna Ockenden, and the appointment of Yvette Cooper as secretary of state for health and social care, offering a golden opportunity for system-wide change. “I want to make it a personal crusade to put the cradle back at the heart of the NHS,” Cooper told the Guardian last week, adding that she was committed to introducing a new national maternity commissioner.

For women and families, cumulative systemic problems have resulted in failures of compassionate care, with distressing examples described in both reports. Where behaviour is unkind or unprofessional, this is inexcusable, and the life-changing physical and psychological trauma caused by poor care must continue to be acknowledged.

We also owe it to all staff groups, particularly midwives, who are often blamed in the media, to recognise that they provide high-quality care to many women every day, despite intense workplace pressures. The Amos inquiry found that just 22% of........

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