NEW mothers' experiences of maternity services across Wales should form a key part of planning, but they are being ignored, a top parenting charity claims.

But in Gwent, parents' panels are being established as a way of ensuring that those receiving the care have a say in how it is delivered.

The National Childbirth Trust fears that, a year after a Wales Audit Office (WAO) report called for more use to be made of parents' experiences of such services before, during and following birth, little progress has been made.

Wales' three regional maternity liaison committees - designed to help plan maternity services in different parts of the country, and which should involve service users - are not meeting regularly, and other means of gathering evidence of parents' experiences are not being developed, says the trust (NCT).

In Gwent, where around 6,000 babies a year are born in hospitals, parent panels have been set up across the Aneurin Bevan Health Board area to discuss maternity issues and the planning of services.

A service review triggered by concerns in 2008 over Gwent's maternity services, has been instrumental in ensuring staff and patients are now more involved in service planning. Wales-wide, last autumn's major reorganisation of the NHS, its lead-in and bedding down, has contributed to the maternity liaison committees not meeting regularly.

But Anne Fox, the NCT's head of campaigns and public policy, called the situation "concerning."

"Now is the time to act, to learn from the experiences of maternity service users and create a national strategy providing guidance on good service provision," she said.