Our maternity care needs radical changes. Women must reclaim birth | Letter
Regarding your letters about how maternity care is failing mothers and babies (May 17), your readers are right: there is a fundamental problem with our maternity care that needs radical change. As the World Health Organization stated in 1985, “birth is not a disease”; but NHS services treat childbirth as if it were.
In 1992, after years of campaigning, birth activists were delighted when the select committee chaired by Nicholas Winterton made far-reaching recommendations on reorganization. The government responded by setting up a working group chaired by Julia Cumberlege. They reported in 1993 that women should be at the center of care, that midwives should have a greater and more autonomous role and that there should be continuity in care.
Various plans were set up, but without money to change the system. The government changed and after many years of a midwifery system it was difficult to bring about change. However, here is one successful example: the Albany Midwifery Practice in Peckham, South London, in 1997, which was contracted to King’s College Hospital. The published results of the first 1,000 births were excellent. Women were enthusiastic about the care they received. The breastfeeding rate was high, the number of home births was over 40% and the birth results were better than in other midwifery practices. In 2009, King’s terminated the contract, despite widespread outrage from women (see Closure by Becky Reed and Nadine Edwards, published by Pinter & Martin). An independent review by the Center for Mother and Child Research did not recommend a closure. A retrospective study of all births during the twelve years again had good results.
This inexplicable action is a scandal and must be reversed.
What women and midwives need is for this model of care to be adequately funded and supported. It would solve the shortage of midwives and poor care revealed by successive surveys. We don’t need new research. Women must reclaim birth.
Wendy Savage
Emeritus Professor, Queen Mary University of London