| Peterborough Campaign for Choice
in Childbirth 4th July 2004 Visit the PCCC website There are easy ways to help this campaign to maintain the choice of homebirth across the UK!
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Midwives are under attack in many different countries. They often feel very isolated and have no political support groups. Sometimes their colleagues have been cowed by years of institutional bullying and feel unable to offer support. Many midwives are concerned with using their skills to serve mothers and babies but are not interested in the politics of midwifery. Prosecutions often concern midwives who do not tow the line and who assist at home birth and try to help women give birth physiologically. It looks as if independent midwives who challenge the medical establishment are at risk. What are the implications of these cases for midwifery and for women's experiences of birth? Midwives are at risk of losing self-confidence when they work independently or take professional initiative. At worst, they will only be safe when they function within an institutional bureaucratic system, keep their place in the hierarchy, and cover themselves legally every step of the way. They will be under pressure to do all investigations possible, intervene early, and let obstetricians make the major decisions. Then they cannot be found responsible. They will warn women that home birth is dangerous and refuse to attend those who do not come into the hospital. If midwives start to work in this way midwifery will be destroyed. In its place we shall have obstetric nurses. The painful conflict that has continued for so long in North America has now come to Europe. In spite of all the rhetoric of Changing Childbirth and talk about woman-centered care we are faced with a challenge to midwifery and also to women's right to give birth in their own way, in their own time, and in their own place.
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Support Home Birth in Hungary 18th October 2001 An international petition is being organised called "Giving Birth in Freedom, Being Born to Freedom." To learn more about this email Nick.Thorpe@bbc.co.uk
Supporting bereaved women in New York after 10/11 September
2001 They let all the hospitals know that they
would be with any woman, free of charge, who wanted a
doula. The New York doulas asked for guidance in
giving emotional support to these women in their grief.
Evidence based guidelines for midwifery led care in labour Congratulations to the midwives of St. Richard's Hospital,Chichester, on their Guidelines (2000). This is a brilliant booklet produced by the Guidelines and Protocols (GAP) group they set up, and is a model for every other hospital. This publication was itself inspired by two previous guidelines produced by the midwives of the Leicester Royal Infirmary and the Central Sheffield University Hospitals. Ventures like these are huge steps forward in midwifery, and for women.
On care of the perineum, they quote Enkin et al in A Guide to Effective Care in Pregnancy and Childbirth: 'Touch may be a disruptive distraction and potentially causes trauma'. Recommendations include: There is no justification for 'hands-on management during second stage of labour to prevent perineal trauma... (They are critical of the HOOP trial, which revealed that after midwives were 'hands on' at delivery fewer women had pain 10 days after birth, since every woman who participated in the trial was 'managed' and had to assume a semi-recumbent or sitting position for the second stage.) The recommendations continue: 'Episiotomy
is the most common operation in obstetrics and is
associated with complications such as increased blood
loss, infection, and prolonged sexual problems. The use
of routine episiotomy should be abandoned. Specific
informed consent should be obtained prior to performing
an episiotomy.
The Caesarean section rate is rising Sheila is on the Maternity Care Working Party that is addressing the issue of a rising Caesarean rate in the UK. This is a multi-disciplinary group set up by the National Childbirth Trust. The recommendations they make include: All
maternity units should audit their Caesarean births The
Independent 27th August 2001 Older mothers are being subjected to scans, Caesarean sections and aided deliveries even when these procedures are unnecessary. A study of close on 30,000 births at the Aberdeen Maternity Hospital published in The British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the end of August reveals that primigravidae over the age of 40 are 14 times more likely to have an elective Caesarean than those under 30. They are more likely to have 2 scans or more, and a hospital stay lasting 5 days. They are more likely to be separated from their babies, who are sent to the neonatal unit. It seems that the term 'elderly primigravida' in the maternity records sends a subliminal message to obstetricians and midwives that they should intervene. In fact, unless pregnancy has shown that a woman is at increased risk, birth is as safe as it is for younger women. |
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Independent Midwives produce a Manifesto on Human Rights and Birth and Women's Rights to Midwifery Care 9 October 2000 The Aachen Declaration on Midwifery For All states:
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Consumer guide to Services in Ireland Jan 2000 |
