20 Apr, 2026
The For Baby’s Sake Trust welcomes the publication of the new Women’s Health Strategy and strongly supports its explicit recognition of inequality, intersectionality and the need for prevention‑focused, trauma‑informed, women‑centred healthcare. We are encouraged by the strategy’s acknowledgement that working‑class women and women from minoritised backgrounds face the greatest health injustices, including stark and unacceptable disparities in maternal and infant outcomes.
As a national charity working at the intersection of domestic abuse, pregnancy, and early years, we are encouraged to see the intersection of domestic abuse, violence against women and girls (VAWG), maternity care, and perinatal mental health referenced throughout the strategy. We welcome the opportunity to contribute our expertise to ensure that these commitments translate into meaningful, lasting change for women, babies, children and families.
We are particularly encouraged by the strategy’s explicit recognition of pregnancy and the period following birth as times of heightened risk for domestic abuse. The For Baby’s Sake Trust has long advocated for greater understanding of the impact of abuse during pregnancy and the early years, and we welcome the growing alignment between government policy and evidence from frontline practice. This inclusion represents understanding and reinforcement of the legal right of babies to be recognised as victims of domestic abuse in their own right.
Putting lived experience and patient voice at the centre
We strongly endorse the strategy’s commitment to placing patient voice at the heart of system reform and to redressing the power imbalance between citizens and health services. Mechanisms such as the GP Patient Survey must go beyond measuring whether women feel heard, to actively assess whether professionals are proactively asking about those things that matter most to women and impact their health. This includes the significant impact of domestic abuse and all forms of violence against women and girls on physical and mental health, amplified during pregnancy, the postnatal period, and at other key life stages. These measures and indicators should be designed by women for women and monitored, reviewed, and reported transparently.
Prevention must include domestic abuse and early harm
We welcome the emphasis on the shift towards prevention within the NHS. Prevention must include earlier identification of domestic abuse as a critical public health issue affecting women. For lasting change, this should go hand in hand with support and intervention for those concerned about their own harmful behaviours towards partners or children. Taking an intersectional approach to understanding abuse and offering evidence‑based NHS‑commissioned interventions represents a significant opportunity to prevent the escalation of harm and to interrupt intergenerational cycles of trauma before they become entrenched.
Health outreach to women in pregnancy must include recognition and intervention to prevent the physical, mental and emotional harm of domestic abuse. The risk of significant harm to mother and baby, alongside a time of increased contact with health professionals, creates a critical opportunity for early intervention that must not be missed.
Digital and community shifts: opportunities and safeguards
We welcome the expansion of digital health tools, including digital contraception delivery and expanded mechanisms on the NHS App, and recognise their potential to increase autonomy and safety for women experiencing coercive control. These developments present important opportunities to incorporate sensitive, discreet enquiry about domestic abuse and safeguarding needs, similar to those within existing online sexual health pathways, when ordering testing kits.
However, digital transformation must be carefully designed with women, for women, to avoid increasing risk. Features such as the NHS App’s “My Carer” function must include robust safeguards to ensure that disabled women are not exposed to coercive control by carers or prevented from making independent healthcare decisions.
Access to contraception, fertility and abortion care
We strongly support commitments to accessible, high‑quality contraception, abortion, fertility, and preconception care. For women experiencing reproductive coercion, honour‑based abuse, or controlling relationships, discreet access to these services can be life‑changing. We urge that all staff delivering these services receive training in recognising and responding to domestic abuse, coercive control, and safeguarding risks, and that research into contraceptive control is strengthened.
Perinatal mental health, parent–infant relationships and Best Start Family Hubs
The substantial investments in perinatal mental health; parent-infant relationship support; and practical help through Best Start Family Hubs are a vital and welcome step. To be effective for the most vulnerable families, these services must include specialist domestic abuse provision and ringfenced funding for safeguarding and prevention.
Babies born to parents impacted by domestic abuse are at heightened risk of poor developmental, emotional, and health outcomes. We strongly urge targeted investment in early identification, developmental monitoring, and therapeutic support for babies and young children affected by domestic abuse, recognising them as victims in their own right.
Education, relationships and tackling misogyny
We welcome commitments to improve education around menstrual health, but we must stress that to be effective, these initiatives must include all children and young people, regardless of gender. Excluding boys risks reinforcing stigma, undermining empathy and failing to address the growing impact of misogyny and sexism in schools. Education focused on preventing teen pregnancy must also address teenage intimate partner violence, particularly given the high rates of domestic abuse experienced by young people. These dynamics may drastically change the experience of a teen pregnancy and increase the chance of negative effects on the mother and baby during and after pregnancy.
Violence against women and girls and safeguarding pathways
The ambition to halve VAWG within a decade is welcome, as is investment in health‑based domestic abuse and sexual violence referral pathways. These pathways must recognise the links between different forms of harm, including domestic abuse, child sexual abuse and exploitation, and ensure that children living with domestic abuse are not siloed out of specialist responses.
We particularly welcome the appointment of a dedicated VAWG Adviser and the explicit commitment to improving understanding of domestic abuse during pregnancy and after birth. This reflects long‑standing advocacy by For Baby’s Sake Trust, and we strongly support further evaluation and development of healthcare‑based interventions during this high‑risk period.
Workforce training and culture change
We welcome the forthcoming safeguarding learning programme and women‑centred skills framework for the NHS workforce. Comprehensive domestic abuse training must be embedded at all levels and include:
- Understanding of coercive control and non‑physical forms of abuse
- Awareness of the heightened risk and impact of domestic abuse during pregnancy and early years
- Trauma-informed, intersectional approach to domestic abuse
- Skills to respond safely to disclosures
- Competence in engaging those worried about their own harmful behaviours
Health visitors, midwives, GPs and community providers are often the first professionals to identify risk and harm. We are pleased to see refreshed health visiting guidance that strengthens routine screening, data sharing, and transitions of care, and we stand ready to support training and implementation.
Inclusion, trust and cultural sensitivity
We welcome the strategy’s recognition of the needs of autistic people, people with learning disabilities, Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, and LGBTQ+ women. To be meaningful, improved access must be matched with action to tackle systemic discrimination and build trust, particularly where disclosure of abuse may carry fears of stigma, criminalisation, or family separation. Support for survivors must be trauma‑informed, culturally sensitive, and inclusive of trans and gender‑diverse women. We must make it clear that the exclusion of gender-nonconforming and trans women is unacceptable; they cannot be separated from the rest of the LGBTQ+ community, and in many cases, experiences of gender and sexuality largely overlap. It is inadequate to offer increased help to a section of the community while actively rolling back supportive care for another.
Our offer
The For Baby’s Sake Trust welcomes the strong direction of travel set out in this strategy. We stand ready to support implementation through our expertise in:
- Domestic abuse during pregnancy and the early years
- Trauma‑informed, whole family interventions
- Training for health professionals
- Prevention and early intervention to break cycles of abuse
We urge government and NHS partners to ensure that domestic abuse is recognised as a critical public health issue and treated as a core determinant of women’s health, babies’ outcomes, and future population wellbeing. Getting this right will save lives, reduce long‑term costs, and create safer, healthier futures for women, babies, and families.
