September 2025 update

I hope you have all had a good summer although it seems a long time ago now with the darker nights and stormy weather descending upon us. Thank you to all those members who attended the conference in Belfast. It was good to see so many of you there. This was my first conference as President. Thank you to all those who welcomed me in that role. There were many highlights from Belfast but for me the rousing call to arms from Professor Kypros Nicolaides showed that there is a passion in our specialty to deliver the very highest level of obstetric care to women and babies. A special thank you to all our speakers and to Fionnula Mone and all the committee for their tireless work in organising what I hope you will agree was a very exciting program.

And so, we must move on and think about next year. I am delighted to announce that BMFMS 2026 will be in Leeds at The Royal Armouries on 26-27 March 2026. This is a little earlier than last year’s conference but please save the date. The conference website is now live and abstracts will be accepted from 29 September 2025. We hope to attract the very highest quality research so please get your submissions together and contribute to the program to make it a great success. The committee are currently working hard to bring you an exciting and varied program. If you have any suggestions for the conference for topics or speakers we would be delighted to hear them. The early bird pricing will end on 15 November 2025. In line with the discussion at the AGM the prices will remain the same as this year’s conference. We will be running the simulation sessions again which seemed to be well received and are hoping that the mMOET team will again contribute.

As President I really want to make the society more inclusive and suggestions for how we can do this going forward would also be appreciated. We are holding an away day in November to discuss our future plans for the society including hot topic webinars and collaborations with other aligned societies to give our members more than just an annual conference. We also wish to increase the Midwifery profile within the society and hope to attract many more midwifery members.

As you all know obstetrics is under increasing national scrutiny and it is important that we stand together as a specialty. Our thoughts are with the fourteen hospitals under investigation currently. We are sending them our good wishes to keep strong and keep providing the excellent care that we know they give.

BMFMS continues to comment on National Guidance by which we hope to have an impact on the shape of obstetric services. We are currently providing comments on the Framework for Maternity Standards and the Green-top guideline on NIPT. As a society we were also delighted in the initial success of the Government’s bill to decriminalise self-managed abortion. Although this is still at an early stage, preliminary results are very encouraging. We have also finalised the document on Fetal pain which will provide fetal medicine practitioners with a framework in which to discuss and provide fetal analgesia for invasive procedures.

We have a vacancy on the committee for a labour and delivery rep. We thank Dr Sana Usman for all her hard work and enthusiasm as a committee member. Please look out for updates on the website for details of the election process.

The next committee meeting will be in January 2026 at Union Street (date to be confirmed).

Finally, please consider submitting your abstracts and attending the conference in March 2026. It’s a great opportunity to get involved in the society and make it work for you.

Best wishes

Dr Emma Ferriman
Consultant in Fetal Medicine and Obstetrics,
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust
President, BMFMS