Campaigns

AIMS has campaigned for improvements to the maternity services in the UK since 1960. We run national campaigns, support local people with their campaigns and support individual women, birthing people and families via our helpline. AIMS responds to multiple NICE guideline consultations, and has been instrumental in changing both guidance and language to better support women and babies through their maternity journey.

AIMS works towards better births for all by campaigning and information sharing, protecting human rights in childbirth and helping women to know their rights, whatever birth they want, and wherever they want it.

AIMS Position Papers

AIMS is pleased to announce the publication of the first of our new position papers. Over the years, AIMS has developed a reputation for taking a posi…   Read more…

AIMS Letter to Wes Streeting to welcome announcement of a National Maternity Review

AIMS has written to Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to welcome his announcement of a National Maternity Review, offer…   Read more…

AIMS review of the Big Baby trial

Introduction There has long been uncertainty over whether there is any benefit to early induction of labour when a baby is suspected to be ‘big’, know…   Read more…

MBRRACE-UK Saving Lives Improving Mothers' Care Report 2024

By the AIMS Campaigns team This note is intended to offer both a summary and AIMS commentary on the latest annual MBRRACE-UK report. MBRRACE stands fo…   Read more…

AIMS Letter to Professor Mary Renfrew

AIMS has written to Professor Mary Renfrew to thank her for taking the lead on reviewing maternity services in Northern Ireland. Her report is the fir…   Read more…

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PIMS Short Case Study - Optimal Cord Clamping and Intact Cord Resuscitation

Optimal cord clamping AIMS supports midwife Amanda Burleigh’s campaign for optimal cord clamping “ Wait for White ”. Optimal cord clamping is a key pa…   Read more…

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PIMS Short Case Study - Biomechanics

Biomechanics for Birth AIMS is proud to showcase the work of Molly O’Brien, who teaches Biomechanics for Birth, including techniques to diagnose and r…   Read more…

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PIMS Short Case Study - Family-friendly/natural/gentle caesarean birth

Some key elements Promotion of a holistic and personalised birth experience Parents able to see baby being born (if wished) Slow birth of baby’s body…   Read more…

What next for the maternity services in England? AIMS responds to NHS England’s 2025/26 Operational Planning Guidance

By the AIMS Campaigns Team 18 February 2025 Based on guidance documents published last month, by the Government and by NHS England 1 , AIMS is pleased…   Read more…

Scotland set to make progress in implementing full pathway Continuity of Carer? An AIMS update

By the AIMS Campaigns Team February 2025 AIMS wrote to Neil Gray, the Cabinet Secretary for Health & Social Care, in January this year regarding the i…   Read more…

Birth Activist Briefings

These regular briefings aim to provide information to understand key features of our maternity service structure to help you to campaign for improved…   Read more…

Change NHS Community Engagement workshop feedback

On 29th January 2025 AIMS hosted an engagement workshop to gather feedback on what people would like to see included in the Government’s 10 year Healt…   Read more…

AIMS response to the Change NHS consultation

AIMS has submitted an organisational response to the Government's Change NHS consultation. This sets out the key improvements to the maternity service…   Read more…

AIMS Letter to Wes Streeting

AIMS has written to Wes Streeting MP, welcoming him to the role of Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. We acknowledge his awareness that ma…   Read more…

Involving Service User Voices in Maternity Research and Clinical Development

This is an edited version of an invited talk given by Jo Dagustun, AIMS Campaigns Team, to the International Labour and Birth Research Conference UK,…   Read more…

Birth Trauma Inquiry Open Letter in response to the APPG Birth Trauma Inquiry May 2024

We write this letter in response to the recently published APPG Report on Birth Trauma which can be found here The report was extremely moving and we…   Read more…

Evidence Submission to The House of Lords Preterm Birth Committee

Find submission on UK Parliament webite https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/129150/pdf Introduction AIMS (Association for Improvements in…   Read more…

Parliamentary Inquiry into Birth Trauma: Call for Evidence - AIMS Submission

Introduction to AIMS and why AIMS is making a submission Since 1960, AIMS has been the leading advocate for improvements in UK maternity care. We have…   Read more…

What are the priorities for midwifery and maternity research ?

AIMS is proud to be supporting the RCM's Research Prioritisation project as a Project Partner and with one of our volunteers on the Steering Group www…   Read more…

BICS Conference poster: AIMS Campaign for Physiology-Informed Maternity Services

AIMS Campaigns Team volunteers are presenting a poster about our campaign for Physiology-Informed Maternity Services at the 2023 conference of the Bri…   Read more…

Maternity transformation - where are we?

Is maternity improvement possible without service transformation? AIMS says no, and calls for work over and above the NHS-E Three Year Delivery plan,…   Read more…

England’s new Regional Chief Midwives

For information about the Regional Chief Midwives please see the article Birth Activist Briefing: Introducing England’s new Regional Chief Midwives Th…   Read more…

Review: National Cohort study on induction at 39 weeks

This is a review of the paper (https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1004259%20 ) published on July 20, 2023 by resea…   Read more…

ARM National Winter Meeting 2022: Continuity of Carer is the future. An AIMS Perspective.

Jo Dagustun, AIMS Volunteer and Campaigns Team Member This is a tidied up version of a speech that AIMS Volunteer Jo Dagustun, gave at the 2022 Winter…   Read more…

Latest Content

Journal

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Disrupting breastfeeding confidence…

AIMS Journal, 2025, Vol 37, No 3 By Alex Smith An increasing number of new mothers begin breastfeeding following a long drawn-out process of induction of labour. Currentl…

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Editorial: Thinking about breastfee…

AIMS Journal, 2025, Vol 37, No 3 Welcome to the September 2025 issue of the AIMS journal. The theme for this quarter is breastfeeding. An important issue that emerged as…

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A Conversation with Kate Evans, aut…

AIMS Journal, 2025, Vol 37, No 3 Interview by Catharine Hart Thank you for agreeing to be interviewed by AIMS, Kate. I love that this book doesn't try to sound authoritat…

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Events

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AIMS Workshop: Building Allies

AIMS is delighted to be hosting a series of Tools for Change campaigning workshops to be led by Ruth Weston. Ruth's journey of Birth Activism and Maternity Service Campai…

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AIMS Workshop: The Foundation Stone…

Join us for an interactive online AIMS workshop: " The Foundation Stones for Supporting the Physiological Process in Pregnancy and Birth ". In this workshop discussion we…

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AIMS Workshop: Make Change Happen

AIMS is delighted to be hosting a series of Tools for Change campaigning workshops to be led by Ruth Weston. Ruth's journey of Birth Activism and Maternity Service Campai…

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Latest Campaigns

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AIMS Letter to Wes Streeting to wel…

AIMS has written to Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to welcome his announcement of a National Maternity Review, offer our support for the…

Read more

AIMS review of the Big Baby trial

Introduction There has long been uncertainty over whether there is any benefit to early induction of labour when a baby is suspected to be ‘big’, known as ‘Large for Gest…

Read more

AIMS Letter to Professor Mary Renfr…

AIMS has written to Professor Mary Renfrew to thank her for taking the lead on reviewing maternity services in Northern Ireland. Her report is the first of its kind to ta…

Read more