Mastering Diversity 2026: Voices, Experience and Change in Maternity Care

As the Medico-Legal sector continues to see an increase in maternity cases across the UK, Bryany Tweedale reviews and comments on a wider range of negligence that may have occurred. Many of these cases centre of oversights of women’s holistic needs during pregnancy and child birth and as a practising midwife she feels there remains a stark and shocking difference in the outcomes and experiences of women from the global majority.

Due to her experience as both an expert witness and a clinician, Bryany was invited to speak at the Mastering Diversity 2026 Conference, sponsored by Leigh Day and joined the panel discussion on ‘Equity in Maternity: Voices, Support, Action’, chaired by Julia Reynolds, Cardiff-based Medical Negligence Partner, Leigh Day.

The panel and audience brought together a diverse range of voices and lived experience with discussions around the challenges and realities of contemporary NHS maternity care, the cases coming through maternity claims and concerns, and opportunities to improve maternity services. Bryany discussed in particular, the common themes in relation to common experiences of women involved in litigation claims and where we see failings in clinical care that impact upon outcomes for women/babies.

Talking about her involvement in the event, Bryany said “Equity and diversity are incredibly important as part of my clinical role as a midwife. I work with families from a range of diverse backgrounds, and my role involves supporting, advocating and caring for women regardless of their background, culture, religion etc.

“I know I have done my job properly when I have empowered every woman to make the right decisions for her, throughout pregnancy and birth, and when I have done everything I have to create equity for women by being an ally, supporting them to overcome barriers and challenges, and as a strategic leader, in stripping barriers from systems and services.

“In everyday practice, there remains stark and shocking differences in the outcomes and experiences of women from the global majority.”

The event was a fantastic opportunity for networking, listening to people’s lived experiences as reality of care and gave like-minded people in the room the opportunity to reflect on practice.

Events like the Mastering Diversity Conference are important to keep the conversation going and this event in particular was overwhelmingly positive and focused on women’s health and care, with diversity of every kind embraced and celebrated.

Bryany Tweedale is a Consultant Midwife and Expert Witness with particular expertise in complex maternity care, informed decision-making and individualised birth planning. In her clinical practice, she supports women with complex underlying medical conditions and those who have experienced previous antenatal or birth difficulties, including women making birth choices outside standard clinical guidance.

Her experience extends across high-risk maternity care, birth injury, pregnancy loss and neonatal resuscitation. She also has extensive experience in the investigation and review of serious and critical maternity incidents, including cases involving stillbirth, hypoxic ischaemic encephalopathy and maternal and neonatal deaths. This involves scrutinising antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal care against expected clinical standards, examining escalation and clinical decision-making, and identifying potential lapses in care, procedural failures or wider systemic and governance issues. This gives Bryany particular insight into not only what happened in an individual case, but the standards, processes and organisational factors surrounding the care provided.

As an expert witness, Bryany brings this extensive clinical and governance experience to complex maternity claims, with expertise including failings in antenatal care leading to intrauterine death, CTG interpretation and escalation, the identification and management of shoulder dystocia, birth injury and perineal trauma.

Alongside her clinical expertise, Bryany has a Master’s degree focused on autonomy and choice during childbirth within the law. This combination of senior clinical practice, critical incident review, maternity governance and medico-legal knowledge enables her to bring a particularly valuable perspective to complex cases where standards of care, clinical decision-making, escalation, consent, risk and wider service failings may all need to be considered.

At Bush & Co, Bryany is regularly instructed on both Liability Reports and Inquests by both Claimant and Defendant solicitors.