Childbirth can be one of the most momentous moments in a woman’s life, but also one of the most fraught, and giving birth remains a uniquely personal event, with women having sometimes wildly different experiences.  

For those who experience birth trauma, it can be life altering, debilitating and long term. Many new parents have used social media to convey their feelings and emotions related to childbirth. The platforms are a treasure trove of content that provide an insight into experiences of maternity services. This was where a recent project by Ipsos Synthesio, the company’s social listening business, in partnership with Sky News, sought to gather information. 

In recent years, several NHS maternity scandals have rocked the UK, with a report earlier this year focused on the Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust – the largest maternity investigation in UK history – highlighting major failings, just one of several to have been launched or completed in the past decade. The Ockenden Review investigation focused on cases of poor practice in maternity wards, some of which had led to harm and bereavement, with almost 2,500 families involved, spanning a near 13-year period.  

Sky News was conducting a major investigation into maternity services in the UK and “wanted to build the most comprehensive picture possible of what it’s like to have a baby in the UK today”, said Bairbre Cunningham, head of clients UK at Ipsos Synthesio. Sky News approached Ipsos to get an understanding of what people were already sharing publicly online about their experiences. 

Ipsos Synthesio analyses online conversations from an array of sources, including social media, forums, blogs, ratings and reviews, search and large language models. For the work with Sky News, Synthesio analysed 377,852 publicly available posts and comments about maternity services in the UK between March 2024 and March 2026. The data helped inform a wider project that incorporated surveys of healthcare professionals, Care Quality Commission surveys, monthly maternity stats and video testimonies. 

The team prioritised and anonymised the views collected online based on share of voice, distribution and sentiment, among other factors, which identified 15 topics for further exploration.  

Real experience 

The analysis found 48 narratives that underpinned public experiences of maternity services across the country. The stories ranged from staff and finance to space and facilities, as well as childbirth complications and levels of care. However, it was interactions with healthcare staff that drew the most attention online, accounting for more than a third of all social media discussion about childbirth. 

“One thing that actually really surprised me was that we saw the dominant narrative with more than 30% of share of voice, but at the same time, we detected more than 40 sub-narratives, so it’s a very, very granular field of discussion,” Pavel Lebedev, director at Ipsos Synthesio, adds. 

“This is the beauty of social intelligence – you go with an open mind, and the data gives you the idea of what actually people care about.” 

A large proportion of conversations on social media were mainly negative in how they depicted experiences of UK maternity services, accounting for 47% of all discussions about the subject. Experiences such as baby loss, miscarriages, medical complications, patient safety and quality of service loomed large in the online conversation. In contrast, 21% of conversations were predominantly positive, often centring on appreciation for care received from medical staff. 

“We found that the positive experiences were often driven by empathy, things like the responsive communication and the continuity of care,” Cunningham adds. “Whereas conversely, negative experiences were frequently associated with feelings of not being heard, difficulties accessing support or concerns about safety, and maybe experiences surrounding pregnancy loss or complications as well.” 

The results fed into a wider Sky News series across various formats on maternity care in the UK, but Ipsos’ close working relationship with the news channel’s data and forensics team also helped introduce the team to ideas from a separate industry famed for its investigative prowess. The Sky News team was involved throughout, said Lebedev, with weekly catch-ups throughout the whole process, from brainstorming ideas to guiding areas of focus, and finally in analysing the results – something Lebedev feels contributed to the project’s success. 

“The more communication you can have with your clients or partners, the better, especially when you work with multiple data streams,” said Lebedev. “We don’t exist in an isolated world anymore.  

“I was inspired with how Sky approach data visualisations and narrative building. It’s more like data journalism. I think we could learn a lot from this and be inspired by the way they work with the data visualisations, non-linear narratives and video content, for example.”  

Those stories posted online ultimately helped develop consequential journalism on the subject. In an age where it can be hard to cut through the social media algorithm, combining old and new mediums helped provide a more complete narrative and give voice to those who might otherwise be unheard.