Victoria Rixon

This week I spoke candidly about the mounting crisis in UK maternity services, reflecting on the impact of the Ockenden findings in Nottingham, the Amos review, and the wider pattern of investigations now unfolding across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I shared why I believe the missing piece in so many public conversations is the voice of midwives themselves, and why true accounta...

Tonight I reflected on the publication of Donna Ockenden’s devastating findings into maternity services at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, and why the themes in that report feel so painfully familiar across the maternity system: women not being listened to, delays in intervention, toxic workplace cultures, poor leadership, and avoidable harm. I spoke from both a professional and persona...

Tonight I’m joined by fellow FTT host and former NHS healthcare assistant Shelly Tasker for a frank conversation about whistleblowing, life on the wards during the early pandemic, and the personal and professional fallout that followed. Shelly recounts empty wards in Cornwall, the moment she publicly resigned in uniform, and the hostility she later faced when trying to return to caring roles. We a...

In this episode of Food for Thought Radio, I round up a difficult week of maternity headlines across the UK and Ireland—from historic legal settlements and reported serious adverse events to unacceptable delays for induction of labour—and reflect on what these stories mean for families, midwives and services. We also look ahead to the imminent Nottingham maternity review by Donna Ockenden and the...

In tonight’s programme, I open with a roundup of the week’s major maternity stories and why they matter now, not just when they trend. We look at the PSA’s finding that the Nursing and Midwifery Council met 9 of 18 regulatory standards and the resulting escalation to Parliament, fresh investigations and reporting on the UK maternity crisis, and cases in Scotland and Gloucestershire that lay bare h...

This week's show from Victoria.

In this candid solo episode, I take you onto a UK maternity ward and into the minute‑by‑minute reality of coordinating care as an NHS midwife: the bed pressures, relentless alarms, conflicting priorities, documentation demands and the impossible trade‑offs that leave women, babies and staff short‑changed. I share a first‑person ‘day in the life’ simulation drawn from my own experience and the test...

In this first episode on Food for Thought radio, Victoria shares her journey from NHS midwife to maternity campaigner. Drawing on two decades of motherhood across four births and seven years on the wards (2017–2024), Victoria speaks candidly about burnout, fear-driven practice, and why she left registration to advocate for women’s choices, community support, and physiological birth. We explore the...