​Birthrights and Leigh Day announce partnership to promote women's rights in childbirth

The new agreement between the charity and the law firm includes a package of corporate financial support, fundraising activity, pro bono and in-kind support, and joint communications and campaigns, to achieve the following goals:

“We believe that too many women in the UK experience maternity care that does not respect their basic rights. Our partnership will help us raise the profile of these issues, campaign together to achieve change and enable Birthrights to reach and support even more women.”

In 2018, Birthrights responded to over 170 email requests from women and their online factsheets were visited over 7,000 times. Qualitative feedback shows women and families highly value this information, support and individual advocacy. The partnership with Leigh Day will help Birthrights to reach even more women and equip them to secure their rights in pregnancy and childbirth.

Chief Executive of Birthrights, Amy Gibbs, said: 

“We have been extremely grateful for the close relationship, pro bono advice and generous support from Leigh Day to date. As a small charity, this additional financial commitment over three years is invaluable. Our new partnership will help us achieve our potential, invest in our core activities and put us on a firmer footing for the future. We are particularly excited about the opportunity to grow the profile and reach of our advice and information for women.”

Suzanne White, Partner and Head of Clinical Negligence at Leigh Day, said:

“We are very proud to support Birthrights, a small but vital charity that has already achieved so much in its first six years. Many of the women Leigh Day supports have had their rights in pregnancy and childbirth violated due to negligence and substandard care, resulting in physical injury, psychological trauma or tragedy. Working together we can raise awareness of these issues and push for positive improvements in maternity care.”

About the partners

Birthrights is the UK’s only organisation dedicated to improving women’s experience of pregnancy and childbirth by promoting respect for human rights. We believe that all women are entitled to respectful maternity care that protects their fundamental rights to dignity, autonomy, privacy and equality. We provide advice to women on their rights, train healthcare professionals to deliver rights-respecting care, and campaign to change maternity policy, systems and practice. 

Leigh Day is a specialist law firm with some of the country's leading clinical negligence, personal injury, employment and discrimination, product liability, international and human rights teams. Unlike other law firms, we act exclusively for claimants who've been injured or treated unlawfully by others. We are based in London, Manchester and Liverpool.