Valerie Amos highlights key points in her preliminary findings of a national inquiry into maternal and newborn care in England. These findings are consistent with the experiences of mothers of infants requiring neonatal intensive care. Women and families are often placed in inappropriate environments after loss or trauma. When a newborn needs neonatal intensive care, mothers are separated from their babies and moved to the postpartum ward. There they are surrounded by mothers who have newborns with them. This separation is disturbing and affects the psychological well-being of mothers. If the mother no longer receives institutional care and the place of care for the newborn is far from home, she has problems accessing local health services. This leads to overlooking the health and psychological needs of mothers.