Working towards better births for all

The Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services (AIMS) is a volunteer-run charity. Trustees and helpline volunteers are required to be lay people, but our membership and active volunteers include many midwives and other medical professionals, whose input is greatly valued. Our candle image, which has been the AIMS' logo since the late 1960s, represents our commitment to change, no matter how large or small changes may be: ‘It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness’.

The charity was founded over 60 years ago by Sally Willington ‘to support women and families to achieve the birth that they wanted’. Since then, we have campaigned tirelessly for improvements to the UK's maternity services, as well as supporting individual maternity service users, their families and all those who support them. Our dual objectives are reflected in our mission statement:

‘We support all maternity service users to navigate the system as it exists, and campaign for a system which truly meets the needs of all.’