Insight
Risk to women of severe bleeding after birth up almost 20% since 2020

The risk of women in England suffering severe post-birth bleeding has risen to its highest level in five years, prompting fresh concerns about NHS maternity care.
The rate of postpartum haemorrhage, where a mother loses a dangerous amount of blood after delivery, has increased from 27 per 1,000 births in 2020 to 32 per 1,000 this year, a rise of 19 per cent.
NHS England figures analysed by the Liberal Democrats show last year had the largest number of incidents in the five years since records began, with 16,780 cases despite falling birth rates.
This compares with 15,780 in 2023 and 15,230 in 2022.
Helen Morgan is the Liberal Democrats’ health spokesperson.
She said: “The growing risk to mothers of suffering serious and potentially fatal bleeding following childbirth is terrifying.
“We know that severe blood loss contributes to nearly one in 10 maternal deaths [in the UK].
“Every birth involves risk, but rising rates of these incidents will be a source of real fear for women and families across the country.
“It’s completely heartbreaking to see just how many families experience unacceptable injuries and trauma at a time that should be full of excitement and joy.”
The data cover incidents where a woman has lost at least 1.5 litres of blood after giving birth.
While many women bleed after delivery without concern, severe blood loss is the leading cause of maternal death worldwide and accounts for one in 14 maternal deaths in the UK.
The findings add to evidence that NHS maternity care quality and safety are declining.
Last week, Valerie Amos, chair of a government-commissioned investigation into maternity care, said some mothers were receiving unacceptable care that had led to “tragic consequences”.
Obstetricians and gynaecologists say births are becoming more complex, with higher obesity rates and more older mothers raising the risk of complications.
“The reported increase in postpartum haemorrhage is concerning,” said professor Asma Khalil, a consultant obstetrician and maternal-foetal specialist (a specialist in high-risk pregnancy) and spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.
“But it must be understood in the context of births becoming more clinically complex.
“More women are entering pregnancy and birth with factors that can raise the risk of heavy bleeding, for example high blood pressure and a higher body weight, though most will not experience a haemorrhage.”
The Liberal Democrats are urging health secretary Wes Streeting to draw up a “maternity rescue plan” to bring all units up to the Care Quality Commission’s good standard.
In a letter signed by 60 of the party’s MPs, they describe the failure to implement recommendations from previous maternity inquiries as an insult to families harmed by poor care.
Lady Amos said last week it was “staggering” that many of the 750 recommendations made over the last decade had not been put into practice.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson declined to comment directly on the Liberal Democrats’ findings.
They said: “As Baroness Amos set out this week, too many families have been let down by maternity and neonatal services, with devastating consequences.
“That’s why the secretary of state has ordered a rapid review of maternity services and will chair a new national maternity and neonatal taskforce to address deep-rooted issues.”
News
Condé Nast to close women’s health magazine after 47 years

Condé Nast will close its women’s health publication Self after 47 years, with unprofitable editions of Glamour and Wired also set to shut.
In a memo published on the magazine giant’s website on Thursday, the media company’s chief executive, Roger Lynch, said: “As audience behaviours shift, we have not seen a path for Self to continue in its current form as a digital publication.”
“Going forward, health and wellness content will be integrated into our other brands, including Allure and Glamour,” Lynch said, referring to Condé Nast’s other beauty and wellness titles.
Self, which moved to an online-only format in 2017, still reaches more than 20m people each month.
The publication has also earned significant recognition over the years, including a National Magazine award and a Webby’s People’s Voice award.
The closure is part of a wider set of operational changes across the company. Lynch also announced the end of Wired’s Italy edition, noting that while the brand “remains a strong global brand, the Italian edition has not kept pace with growth in our other markets”.
Condé Nast will also wind down Glamour’s publishing operations in Germany, Spain and Mexico.
Lynch said: “Taken together, Wired in Italy, Self and the affected Glamour markets represent a little over 1 per cent of our overall revenue.
“They also remain unprofitable, and continuing to operate them in their current form limits our ability to invest in the ideas and areas that will drive future growth.”
Beyond editorial changes, the company is also restructuring internally to adapt to technological shifts.
Lynch said Condé Nast would make “changes within our technology organisation, reflecting the rapid advancement of AI and its impact on our ability to innovate and build products faster”, adding: “Teams will be restructured to be more agile and to work more closely with our brands and customers, reducing barriers to execution.”
The latest moves follow a series of transformations at Condé Nast in recent years.
Glamour ended its print edition in 2018, followed by Allure moving to a digital-only format in 2022.
In 2024, music publication Pitchfork was folded into GQ, the company’s men’s style magazine.
More recently, last November, Vogue, one of Condé Nast’s key revenue drivers, announced it would absorb Teen Vogue to create a more “unified reader experience across titles”.
The media industry has been shrinking steadily over the years.
From 2010 to 2017, the industry lost an average of 7,305 jobs annually, according to data from Challenger, Gray & Christmas published in December 2025.
Since 2018, the average number of job cuts in the industry has risen to 14,298 a year.
Insight
GSK ovarian and womb cancer drug shows promise in early trial

GSK said its ovarian cancer drug shrank or cleared tumours in more than 60 per cent of patients in an early trial as CCO Luke Miels pushes faster development.
The company said that in an early-stage trial, Mocertatug Rezetecan, known as Mo-Rez, shrank or eliminated tumours in 62 per cent of patients with ovarian cancer after chemotherapy had failed, and in 67 per cent of those with endometrial cancer.
Hesham Abdullah, GSK’s global head of cancer research and development, said: “Treatment of gynaecological cancers remains a major challenge, with a pressing need for new therapies that offer improved response rates.
“With Mo-Rez we now have compelling evidence of a promising clinical profile.”
GSK acquired the Mo-Rez treatment, an antibody-drug conjugate, from China’s Hansoh Pharma in late 2023 and has trialled it in 224 patients around the world, including the UK, over the past year.
Only a few patients needed to stop treatment because of side effects, the most common being nausea.
It is given every three weeks by intravenous infusion, meaning directly into a vein.
Combined with data from a separate intermediate trial in China, the results have given the British drugmaker the confidence to go straight to late-stage trials, with five clinical studies planned globally in the next few months, including on patients in the UK.
Speaking to journalists before the conference, Abdullah described Mo-Rez as a “key asset” in the company’s growing cancer portfolio.
It is expected to be a blockbuster drug, with peak annual sales of more than £2bn, which GSK hopes will help it achieve its 2031 sales target of £40bn.
A few years ago GSK did not have any cancer drugs on the market, but it now has four approved medicines and 13 in clinical development.
Last year, oncology generated nearly £2bn in sales, up 43 per cent from 2024, with sales of its endometrial cancer drug Jemperli rising 89 per cent.
News
Self-employment linked to better cardiovascular health outcomes in Hispanic women

Self-employment is linked to lower rates of high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, poor health and binge drinking in Hispanic women, research suggests.
The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Ethnicity & Disease, suggest work structure may be related to cardiovascular disease risk among this group.
Dr Kimberly Narain is assistant professor of medicine in the division of general internal medicine and health services research at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, senior author of the study, and director of health services and health optimisation research for the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center.
She said: “Hispanic women experience a disproportionate burden of heart disease compared to non-Hispanic women. This is the first study to link the structure of work with risks for heart disease among this group of women.”
The researchers examined 2003 to 2022 data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to assess the association between self-employment, cardiovascular disease risk factors and health outcomes for Hispanic women.
The data included 165,600 Hispanic working women. Of those, about 21,000, or 13 per cent, were self-employed rather than working for wages or a salary.
Overall, the researchers found that self-employed women were less likely to report cardiovascular-disease-associated health problems.
They were also about 11 per cent more likely to report exercising compared with their non-self-employed counterparts.
Specifically, they found that self-employed Hispanic women had a 1.7 percentage point lower chance of reporting diabetes, roughly a 23 per cent decline.
They also had a 3.3 percentage point lower chance of reporting hypertension, roughly a 17 per cent decline.
The study also found a 5.9 percentage point lower chance of reporting obesity, roughly a 15 per cent decline.
It found a 2.0 percentage point lower chance of reporting binge drinking, roughly a 2 per cent decline.
It also found a 2.5 percentage point lower chance of reporting poor or fair overall health, roughly a 13 per cent decline.
The relationship between heart disease risks and the structure of work among Hispanic women was not driven by access to healthcare or differences in income, Narain said.
In fact, the decrease in high blood pressure linked to self-employment was nearly as large as the decrease in high blood pressure linked to being in the highest income group.
The study has some limitations.
The researchers relied on self-reported outcomes, which might be less reliable among ethnic and racial minorities and those from a lower socioeconomic background.
In addition, the researchers’ definition of poor mental health does not entirely match the accepted definition in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
They also did not have data allowing them to examine the specific types of occupations held by the women.
The study design also cannot prove any causal relationship between self-employment and cardiovascular disease risk, which is a subject the researchers will explore.
“The next step in the research is to conduct studies that are able to better assess if the structure of work is a cause of higher heart disease risks among Hispanic women.”
Narain said this.
Study co-authors are Lisette Collins, who led the research, and Dr Frederick Ferguson of UCLA.
Grants from the Iris Cantor-UCLA Women’s Health Center-Leichtman-Levine-TEM program and the UCLA National Clinician Scholars Program supported the research.
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