The NHS England National Patient Safety Team has produced two podcasts to provide an overview of the background and development of the new National Maternity Early Warning Score (MEWS) tool.This is the first of two podcasts from the NHS England National Patient Safety Team. In this first podcast, Professor Marian Knight, University of Oxford; Professor Peter Watkinson, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; and Tony Kelly, National Clinical Advisor, Maternity & Neonatal Safety Improvement Programme NHS England, discuss the development of a new national Maternity Early Warning Score (MEWS) tool.