Shafaq says that when she was finally allowed to give birth, she had not slept or eaten and was too exhausted to push the baby out. The staff had to use forceps and she tore and had to have an episiotomy. Now, he has a prolapse, which he believes is due to forceps. “I’m angry,” he says. “There is a lot of trauma there. “I am always in tears.” He believes that all this could have been avoided if the hospital staff had listened. “I’m suffering today because I did not get what I wanted,” he says. Last week, senior midwife Donna Ockenden released her much-anticipated critique of the Shrewsbury motherhood scandal. He found that nine mothers and 201 babies could have survived if staff had provided better care. The mothers refused the caesarean section and were forced to undergo traumatic births due to their obsession with achieving “normal” birth targets, which means that the trust had one of the lowest caesarean section rates in the country. In some cases, families were blamed when their babies died. Shrewsbury follows other high-profile maternity scandals: Morecambe Bay, where a mother and 11 babies died, East Kent, where the hospital recently pleaded guilty, and Nottingham, where 46 babies suffered brain damage. In these cases, the common themes are repeated: mothers are not heard when they express concerns about the progress of their childbirth. Staff were stuck with vaginal delivery at all costs, even when caesarean sections were medically necessary. and understaffed hospital units that do not properly monitor women. After the review, women talk openly about their experiences of giving birth – and, worryingly, some of the behaviors that supported the Shrewsbury scandal seem to be commonplace. “It’s a lot wider than this exhibition,” says Maria Booker of the charity Birthrights. “Women are not heard. And the staff does not listen to each other. ” In 2020, Birthrights and the Mumsnet parenting site surveyed 1,145 mothers. One in four said their wishes about how they gave birth were not respected. Women are not heard. And the staff does not listen to each other Maria Booker This is despite the fact that, in 2015, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom issued a ruling that ruled that women should receive information about their pregnancies and trust them to make decisions about their care. Montgomery’s decision was a response to a case brought to Lanarkshire by Nadine Montgomery, who was young and had type 1 diabetes, a condition that can lead to births of babies above average, putting them at risk for dystocia. on the shoulder – where the baby hangs at birth. But Montgomery was not informed of this danger by her doctor, Dina McLellan. McLellan admitted that if she had been informed, Montgomery would probably have requested a caesarean section. As a result of Montgomery’s son sticking to him at birth, he was deprived of oxygen and later diagnosed with cerebral palsy. The Supreme Court was scathing for McLellan’s apparent stance on caesarean sections. “Whatever Dr. McLellan had in mind,” the judges ruled, “does not look like a purely medical crisis. “It looks like a crisis that vaginal delivery is somehow morally preferable to a caesarean section.” The guidelines of the National Institute for Excellence in Health and Care (Nice), published in 2011 and updated in 2021, guarantee the right of a pregnant woman to choose how to give birth, stating that women should be able to request a caesarean section without a medical reason. after carefully examining the facts. And yet pregnant women are still not treated as rational factors by many clinicians. “There was this general attitude,” said Isobel Bradshaw, a 38-year-old communications officer in Hampshire. “We’re not talking about a caesarean section.” It was the bobblehead. “If you were to discuss it, it would happen.” Bradshaw is 5 feet 1 inch and, in the last trimester of her pregnancy, her baby had a growth spurt, which was in the 90th percentile in size. During a scan visit to the hospital, Bradshaw says she asked her doctor if a caesarean section was necessary. “She was contemptuous,” says Bradshaw. “It was like, ‘Oh, we’ll give it a go and see what happens. “It will probably be okay.” When Bradshaw gave birth in June 2017, doctors had to perform an emergency caesarean section. “I was 80% sure it would happen,” says Bradshaw. “Exactly from the size of myself and the size of the bump. “So I was mentally prepared for that.” But it could easily not have been: Bradshaw says he knows women who have been hurt by experience. She wishes her caesarean had been scheduled, so she would not have to spend the last weeks of her pregnancy worrying. If she has another child, she says: “You can be sure that I will have a caesarean section. “I do not want to experience this again.” Booker says one of the most common reasons women contact Birthrights Advice Line is to refuse a caesarean section. Other reasons include banning childbirth at a midwifery center or giving birth at home. In 2018, Birthrights published a report showing that some NHS trusts had made maternal caesarean section application incredibly difficult. “When women ignore their desires,” says Booker, “it hurts them.” Studies have shown that such women are more likely to develop PTSD. There is a lot of pressure on the system right now. You must have time to listen to Dr Jo Mountfield Last year, the Commons Health and Social Welfare Committee found that “there is still pressure from women-led clinics to choose vaginal delivery, even when it may not be in their best interest.” This is despite the fact that the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) abandoned its campaign for normal births, which encouraged mothers to give birth without interventions, in 2017. “Can I give you 100% assurance that every woman feels heard? “I can not,” said Dr. Jo Mountfield, Vice President for Workforce and Professionalism at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. “People are doing their best. But there is a lot of pressure on the system right now. You have to have time to listen. “ Midwives protest unsafe practices and working conditions, November 2021. Photo: Guy Smallman / Getty Images In November 2021, the RCM warned of a maternity staff crisis. More than 57% of midwives surveyed planned to quit smoking, citing concerns about staff levels and fears for patient safety. “I get messages on a daily basis from midwives,” says Leah Hazard, midwife and author of Hard Pushed: A Midwife’s Story, who tell me they come in shifts and realize there are not enough staff to keep their workload safe. . » Hazard is scathing to raise £ 127m in funding for NHS England maternity services, after the health and welfare committee ruled last year that an annual increase of around 350 350m was needed. “It’s offensive,” he says. Covid has put extra pressure on already expanded services. “It seemed like they were so stressed,” said Marissa, a 43-year-old East London teacher. “They just wanted to put you in and out.” Marissa became pregnant in December 2020 after eight years of trying and two previous miscarriages. Because there was a lockdown, some obstetric appointments were by phone. on personal appointments, he says the staff seemed stressful. Marissa’s son died at 39 weeks in August 2021, after placental abruption. She claims that hospital staff initially put her in a regular maternity ward as she waited to give birth to her dead child. “It was horrible,” he says. “I listened to babies being born all night.” As soon as he gave her the news, he says that a doctor asked her if she had reduced movements. “It was as if he was blaming me,” he says. “His tone was categorical. It was not compassionate. ” (Doctors later told Marissa that her unborn son would have died quickly in the womb and probably would not have noticed the reduced movements until it was too late.) It is not only male clinicians who are to blame. “Misogyny is also entrenched in women’s behavior,” says Marissa. This is ironic, as obstetrics is a female-dominated profession, and also given the historical connection of the natural birth movement to second-wave feminism. The movement was “an understandable response to patriarchal birth control,” says Eliane Glaser, author of Motherhood: A Manifesto. In the first half of the 20th century, male doctors took birth out of their homes and into hospitals. Women were often drugged and forced to endure traumatic and unnecessary interventions. Senior Midwife Donna Ockenden presents her final review at the Mercure Shrewsbury Albrighton Hall Hotel in Shropshire. Photo: Jacob King / PA Throughout the 60’s and …
