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[GARYx]

More and more mums needing to give birth are turned away from hospitals around the country. Why does the government fail to understand how important child birth is?

BBC article based on new Tory FOI request: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7304811.stm

Post Offices and Maternity units - both essential (one more than the other) but they think they can shut them down without any consequences to people's lives.

[sillylily]

I will probably be shot down for this, but I think that Maternity wards should be closed to any walk in cases, as such.  I think the money should be spent on providing Mums to be with one midwife that they will have all through the pregnancy and at the birth. I think we should go back to having children at home as the norm.  Hospital births should only be available in emergencies and when the patient has been referred by the midwife as someone at risk.
How many Mums who once have had their baby are desperate to get home anyway, they moan about having to wait to be discharged, all the security around the ward for visitors etc.  Why not ease the pressure on the nurses and hospitals and just stay at home anyway, ambulances are usually put on standby by the midwife long before they are needed should anything out of the norm arise. 

[GARYx]

Thankfully when my wife gave birth at QEII there were other midwives and a surgeon around to help. If it was a home birth then the ambulance ride to hospital would have been absolute hell and who knows what would have happened with just 1 midwife and no extra medical equipment.

But it would have been nice to have been given a single midwife to know from about 4 weeks before the birth who is also there for you for up to 4 weeks afterwards, especially so if it's your first child. Instead you see a different midwife each time which feels like you're going through a battery farm.

[sillylily]

I'm going to be nosey here, but hey.  Can I ask at what stage in the Labour your wife had her complications? And was it something that progressed and they kept an eye on it, or was it a full on OMG, that shouldn't have happened and whip her off to surgery?  Feel free to decline to answer, I know I can be intrusive when interested.

[annewells2]

There was nothing wrong with good old fashioned,pardon the expression, childbirth at home. I agree that mums to be should be able to see the same midwife throughout the pregnancy and birth however there is a national shortage of midwives.  Talk to any midwife and they can tell you tales of staff shortages. Where is it going to end. Unfortunatley the health service used to be a safe profesion not any more and that is why it is hard to attract midwives. Then of course ther is the pay says I waiting for this years announcement.

[GARYx]

@sillylilly - right at the very end. It couldn't have been predicted, so my point is that at least in a hospital everything and everyone you need to help in an unexpected emergency is on hand. (Assuming the hospital isn't understaffed, the quality of the staff is excellent, and there are no stupid delays. Grrrrrrr.)

[sillylily]

That is my point about a midwife, at least at home she is right there the whole time, watching and monitoring.  In a hospital it's a case of someone comes along, reads your notes (again), having to explain how you are feeling (again) and generally feeling like you say, in a battery farm.  It is and should feel like a personal thing, which can't happen when you are being looked after by 5 different people that spend less than 10 mins with you.  But yes, I'm sure it is a big relief to know that there is a lot more medical equipment close to hand.

[NeilB]

We have had 2 children at the QE2, one on Jan 2006 and another in June 2007.  The first birth involved a labour of 25 hrs, he did not want to come out!!  At first a ventouse was used to try and pull him out and then forceps, both failed.  They were on the verge of calling the c-section team when the docter decided to try another type or forceps which did work after a struggle.  I for one am glad we were in hospital rather than at home as the outcome could have been very different.

No 2 was a piece of cake - actually it was a girl but you know what I mean!!   

See here for another story on this problem - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7308805.stm

[GARYx]

@sillylilly, it was annoying having to start from scratch each time a new midwife came on duty. Instead of reading the notes the previous midwife spent what seemed like hours writing, they'd ask us. But I guess it's only fair that a midwife does 1 shift at a time, otherwise they could be too exhausted when you need them the most.

@NeilB, it's sad those triplets were split up. We had to wait 4 hours at the QEII for a cot but luckily it was just the 1 baby. Not sure I'd have the time to be on this forum if we had triplets! ;-)

[pjb]

That is my point about a midwife, at least at home she is right there the whole time, watching and monitoring.  In a hospital it's a case of someone comes along, reads your notes (again), having to explain how you are feeling (again)

I don't understand why you can't have just one midwife caring for you in the hospital if that would be possible at home. Am I missing something?  Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds, for some mothers anyway?

[GARYx]

Ha-ha! One midwife per woman in labour? If only! It was more like one shared between three women. They were running around from room to room. A couple of them told us that they're short of midwives (not that we couldn't see for oursevles!) but when we wrote to smug faced Nick Carver he made clear that they are NOT short of midwives. Clearly his ivory tower overlooks some other hospital in a far, far away land that also happens to be called QEII. Easy mistake to make when you're thinking of your political masters and planning how to spend your huge salary and gold plated pension.

[sillylily]

I don't understand why you can't have just one midwife caring for you in the hospital if that would be possible at home. Am I missing something?  Wouldn't that be the best of both worlds, for some mothers anyway?

If you could make sure it was the one that you had through your pregnancy then yes I suppose, but it still puts the pressure onto the hospitals.  They would need all the extra facililites/space to accomodate all these extra midwives coming in with the mothers.  I am still for a shift towards home births, the fact that you are in a familiar place with all your own comforts is far more relaxing than worrying about packing everything, getting there etc. You can get in and out of the bath as often as you like, you can walk around in the nuddy if it helps, you can get fresh air more easily, eat/drink whenever you like and lots of other things. It may seem like a choice is taken away, but you get so many others back.

Many labours, in fact, slow down once the mother gets to hospital.  A theory is anxiety in the Mother.

[pjb]

Sorry if I implied it was currently possible.  I meant why couln't we aim for that.  Although I take your point about hospitals and labour slowing down sillyylily.

It's the logistics of getting midwives to home births in the current situation that concerns me; if there aren't enough to ensure that in hospital you can have one all the way through, won't it be even worse if many are out in people's homes?  Although I'm sure this wouldn't be insurmountable with enough resources and efficient allocation of them.  Then maybe we could give women a real choice about home vs hospital.

[ygwerin]

Child birth is another aspect of capitalist society that puts profit motives beyond patient care.

As its designed by and run virtually exclusively by men it should be of little surprise that women have and will continue to come off worse.
Those that don’t agree with this truism are bound to be men as women especially those in labour know the reality.

It should not be asking the earth to have a health service that actually serves the public both those that have to use it and those who work in it.
With women able to decide what actually happens to their body and what kind of services they require, ie where and how they wish to give birth at home or hospital it should be their choice aided of course by the medical profession and not dominated by it.