Given all the near-apocalyptic news stories we’ve been treated to over the last six months, you can be forgiven if you didn’t notice the recent Ockenden Report into ‘the biggest childbirth scandal in NHS history’, in which poor care in Nottingham Universities Hospital Trust led to ‘potentially avoidable’ outcomes in 444 cases, including 260 babies who died or were harmed.
I have nothing useful to say about maternity services for obvious reasons, but if you look at the repeated scandal/inquiry/“never again” loop in learning disability services you see the same pattern and arguably the same causes. (The extraordinary work of Sara Ryan is exemplary here). So the question is, what would bring about positive change? Because inquiries don’t, and it looks as if “politics as usual” can’t. (Also, the popular success of Adam Kay mystifies me).
Yes, as I was writing this I was thinking you could change the details and produce similar pieces about a few other branches of healthcare and social care -- always, I think, those where the service user is conceived of as somehow 'less' than, say, a 60-year-old professional who needs a knee replacement.
Well said, Rowan! This piece has successfully made me angry about things I didn’t realise I was angry about! I have too many thoughts to articulate really but as I was reading this, I just kept thinking of The Yellow Wallpaper and how we really haven’t come that far!
This is a very important piece and the point about needing medical staff who are competent and compassionate rather than harrowed and hollowed out by presence at and involvement in previous traumatic births is very well made. In the absence of the massive cash injection and proper resourcing of maternity services that is clearly never going to come one thing that every birthing mother could do with is a birth partner who will actually advocate on their behalf, because sometimes making a bloody nuisance of yourself is the difference between life and death.
Yes -- a birth partner who's prepared to overcome giant social taboos and make a huge fuss is a great boon. But one of the things that feels so sickening about the experience of Sarah Hawkins is that both she and her husband were exactly the kinds of people who were capable of making this sort of fuss -- they were both medically qualified, they both worked at the hospital they were trying to gain entry to. (Another example that will never leave me is the death of Martha Mills, daughter of two intelligent and articulate journalists who were aware that things were going very wrong and couldn't make the HCPs listen.) There is something very profound about HCP burnout combined with a genuine lack of resources.
As someone that ended up giving birth in the hotel opposite the hospital because I was told I wasn’t in labour (and accidentally making the news) I hoped that the experience would change things and that’s what I was promised by the UCH after the event. It’s such a scary experience being told that your not in labour and to take two paracetamol. I’ve always thought if there was an emergency I would be accepted into hospital and to be turned away was traumatic. Only for when I did get in for my son to get pneumonia due to limited checks as it was the weekend. I fought against badmouthing the NHS in interviews (it got picked up by loads of global media due to Obama care going on in US). However now I read about these cases I feel I’m far from unusual. Fortunately I know have a gorgeous 13 year old (who’s place of birth on his birth certificate is the hotel- so he’s destined to be a rock star!) Our story ended well but I feel so much for all the mothers who have gone through the trauma of not being heard when they are in so much pain. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/15/i-knew-i-was-in-labour-why-are-women-being-turned-away-from-hospital-during-childbirth
I'm sorry that happened to you! It's kind of astonishing and enraging that the Guardian could find *two* women who were reduced to booking hotel rooms.
I can't read this post due to PTSD from my own childbirth experience. But I agree with the headline. C-sections shouldn't become the default, but they should be offered on the NHS without judgement. I had to fight for mine elective C-section the second time around and I experienced just as much trauma from that process as I did when I nearly bled out with child number one.
I have nothing useful to say about maternity services for obvious reasons, but if you look at the repeated scandal/inquiry/“never again” loop in learning disability services you see the same pattern and arguably the same causes. (The extraordinary work of Sara Ryan is exemplary here). So the question is, what would bring about positive change? Because inquiries don’t, and it looks as if “politics as usual” can’t. (Also, the popular success of Adam Kay mystifies me).
Yes, as I was writing this I was thinking you could change the details and produce similar pieces about a few other branches of healthcare and social care -- always, I think, those where the service user is conceived of as somehow 'less' than, say, a 60-year-old professional who needs a knee replacement.
Well said, Rowan! This piece has successfully made me angry about things I didn’t realise I was angry about! I have too many thoughts to articulate really but as I was reading this, I just kept thinking of The Yellow Wallpaper and how we really haven’t come that far!
This is a very important piece and the point about needing medical staff who are competent and compassionate rather than harrowed and hollowed out by presence at and involvement in previous traumatic births is very well made. In the absence of the massive cash injection and proper resourcing of maternity services that is clearly never going to come one thing that every birthing mother could do with is a birth partner who will actually advocate on their behalf, because sometimes making a bloody nuisance of yourself is the difference between life and death.
Yes -- a birth partner who's prepared to overcome giant social taboos and make a huge fuss is a great boon. But one of the things that feels so sickening about the experience of Sarah Hawkins is that both she and her husband were exactly the kinds of people who were capable of making this sort of fuss -- they were both medically qualified, they both worked at the hospital they were trying to gain entry to. (Another example that will never leave me is the death of Martha Mills, daughter of two intelligent and articulate journalists who were aware that things were going very wrong and couldn't make the HCPs listen.) There is something very profound about HCP burnout combined with a genuine lack of resources.
As someone that ended up giving birth in the hotel opposite the hospital because I was told I wasn’t in labour (and accidentally making the news) I hoped that the experience would change things and that’s what I was promised by the UCH after the event. It’s such a scary experience being told that your not in labour and to take two paracetamol. I’ve always thought if there was an emergency I would be accepted into hospital and to be turned away was traumatic. Only for when I did get in for my son to get pneumonia due to limited checks as it was the weekend. I fought against badmouthing the NHS in interviews (it got picked up by loads of global media due to Obama care going on in US). However now I read about these cases I feel I’m far from unusual. Fortunately I know have a gorgeous 13 year old (who’s place of birth on his birth certificate is the hotel- so he’s destined to be a rock star!) Our story ended well but I feel so much for all the mothers who have gone through the trauma of not being heard when they are in so much pain. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/15/i-knew-i-was-in-labour-why-are-women-being-turned-away-from-hospital-during-childbirth
I'm sorry that happened to you! It's kind of astonishing and enraging that the Guardian could find *two* women who were reduced to booking hotel rooms.
I can't read this post due to PTSD from my own childbirth experience. But I agree with the headline. C-sections shouldn't become the default, but they should be offered on the NHS without judgement. I had to fight for mine elective C-section the second time around and I experienced just as much trauma from that process as I did when I nearly bled out with child number one.
I'm sorry Hayley. I get so angry hearing the stories of NHS resistance to elective CSs. Birthrights are very good on this.