National Maternity Survey 2026

News - 29 April 2026

Was your baby born in January or February 2026? You could be invited to take part in a major survey that assesses the quality of maternity services in England.

'NHS We are listening because we care. Maternity survey 2026. Sharing your experiences can help the NHS improve maternity services. Look out for your invitation in the post or by SMS in May.' A woman holds a baby.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is conducting the 2026 national maternity survey.

The survey is carried out every year. It asks women and other people who have used maternity services about their experience of maternity care.

NHS hospital trusts have been inviting people to take part in this year’s survey during April. Taking part is voluntary and all answers are conﬁdential and anonymous.

About the survey:

Women and people over the age of 16 who had a live birth in February 2026 (and January, where trusts did not have a minimum of 300 eligible births in February) are eligible to take part.
The survey can be completed online or as a paper questionnaire. It is available in several different languages as well as in large print, Braille, and easy read format.
You will be sent a letter from the NHS hospital trust where you received your maternity care. The letter will include a link to complete the survey online. The letter will explain how to complete the survey in an alternative format if preferred.

The survey has been running since 2007 and asks a sample of people who gave birth about their experiences of:

antenatal care
labour and birth
postnatal care

The survey asks questions about a wide range of issues, including:

Did staff listen to you and were your concerns taken seriously?
Did you have confidence and trust the staff delivering your care?
Did you have access to help and information when you needed it?
Were you able to make choices and decisions about your care?
Were you treated with dignity and respect?

Participating in the survey will help improve care. The CQC and services will analyse the responses to:

understand peoples’ experience at each hospital trust.
identify any trends in experience across England.

Results will be published on the CQC's website and on the NHS Surveys website in Autumn 2026.

The CQC will also use the results to inform their understanding of the quality of local maternity services and follow up on any concerns. Hospital trusts will use the results to make changes to improve the experience of people who use their maternity services in the future.

The Maternity survey is part of the Patient Survey Programme.

You can view the results of the previous maternity survey at: Maternity survey 2025 - Care Quality Commission