What this is about
During pregnancy, labour and after birth, your midwife or nurse will regularly check your temperature, pulse, blood pressure, breathing rate and oxygen levels. These are called ‘vital signs’ or ‘observations’. We use a system called MEWS (Maternal Early Warning Score) to track these measurements. Each measurement gets a score, and if the total score reaches a certain level, this triggers the team to check on you more closely or call a doctor. By watching for changes, we can spot problems early and help you before you get seriously ill.
What we are doing
- Improving MEWS has been our focus throughout 2025. We have made sure all midwives have up-to-date training and understanding of when and how to take observations, and that doctors are primed to respond when a patient is escalated for review.
- Soon we will be moving from paper charts to electronic records. This will make the process even more reliable through automatic alerts when scores are high and will give doctors and midwives a clear overview of your observations at the click of a button.
How this helps you
When we catch early warning signs quickly, we can start treatment sooner. This means fewer women become seriously unwell, and those who do need extra care receive it faster.
Our progress
We now see that when MEWS scores reach a worrying level, our staff respond and escalate care faster and more consistently than the national average reported across the UK. We are continuing to work on making sure every woman has her observations checked at the right frequency throughout her care, and the move to electronic records will support this further.
What you can do
If you feel unwell at any point during your pregnancy, labour or after birth, tell your midwife straight away, even if your recent observations were normal. You know your body best. Symptoms like feeling unusually breathless, dizzy, very tired, having a fast heartbeat, or just feeling ‘not right’ are all worth mentioning.
Click here to go back to the
Maternity Improvement Programme: Easy Read main page
