Let's make birth better with Caroline Flint RM RN ADM |
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Newsletter number 4November 2022 Never Again! Oh how I hate those words. After every Investigation, after ghastly practice has been exposed those words are trotted out. I'm sure they are meant sincerely but you can never change practice until you have changed some fundamentals, until you have enabled humans to show humanity.So Police brutality to black and brown men - never again until the next time. Police sexual brutality to women - never again until the next time. Midwives disrespecting women and being very unkind to them - never again until the next time, babies dying who shouldn't have, Never Again, Never Again. Never Again. Doctors treating women as if they are brain dead malfunctioning machines - Never Again. So despite Morecombe Bay and Bill Kirkup's valiant efforts, despite Telford and Shrewsbury and Donna Ockenden's listening skills Never Again will such horrendous things go on - until the next time.When people work in an atmosphere which dehumanises both them and the people they are caring for they are not responsible for their actions, they do things and behave in a way that is completely out of character. This is how nice, respectable, God fearing German women who were mothers, Aunts, Sisters and beloved daughters could be so utterly and unbelievably cruel and heartless to Jewish people. To people who were sensitive and caring, who had been their neighbours a year ago, who had been their doctors, their dressmaker, their favourite coffee shop owner.The easiest way to dehumanise people is to overwhelm them with numbers and give them roles in a factory. In our case an Obstetric factory. Thousands of women to be looked after, sneered at because they think that their pregnancy is special and they think that they are special. They think they know what they want, rather than listening to us "The Experts" who know that all pregnancies end up with women begging for a epidural - I wonder why?In an Obstetric factory we feel safe and comfortable. We tease the medical students, we flirt with our favourite doctors, we discuss last night's date, we enjoy the fellowship of friends amd colleagues. Here we get paid, we are kept solvent and we have a purpose in life. We have a position and we are the "Boss".When women challenge the Guidelines or Mores of the Obstetric factory we hear their challenge to our authority as a threat. If it were just you and her in the pub you would probably agree with her, but here in the Obstetric Factory you threaten her with stillborn babies, "People die in childbirth you know", you tell her that Social Services will have to be involved, you need to do an extra scan to check that the baby is growing properly, you refer to the Consultant who wears her down with statistics and threats. You are not brave enough to be a Midwife Anglo Saxon Mid Wif With Woman, you are just with Obstetric Factory and anyway you are on leave when she is due thank Goodness. How do we address the problem of the Obstetric factory? We need to recognise that it is not the most appropriate place for women to go through the most intimate experience of their lives, we could go back to providing care in the Community which is cheaper and much more effective than institutionalised care and is something we as a Nation are really good at. We know that the safest outcomes come for women who are booked for a home birth - whether they actually give birth at home or in hospital. https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30063-8/fulltextThe huge difference when looking after a woman in her own home is that the power moves into the hands of the woman, it is her home, her birth, her baby. All attention is on her. I remember when in labour I felt like Queen for the day, the whole world revolved around me and my needs, tasty dishes were produced for my delectation, voices were muted so as not to disturb me, it was better than my Birthday or Christmas, I had my husband's total attention, Grannies and Grandpas ringing to ask about progress, neighbours doing washing or making dishes. But who was the Boss? Me and I loved it. If you think you would enjoy these little newsletters I am very pleased to send them to you. You can contact me at any time - 07973 657 642 or caroline.midwife@gmail.com. I publish them probably every month it is my take on what is happening to women and to midwives at this time and solutions on what to do about it (I hope) |
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Sense at last! Nicole Rajan-Brown, Editorial Executive, Maternity and Midwifery Forum; former Editor, The Student Midwife Journal Has written in "Call the midwife: the fallacy of centralised care" about the response to the current maternity crisis where many services are pulling midwives out of community care to centralise. All hands on deck in the Obstetric Factory. All midwifery staff are employed in the Obstetric Unit. The Home Birth Team is laid off, the Midwifery Led Unit is closed. It is complete madness. To me it is as if the Government closed all GP Practices in Greater London and issued instructions to the 8 and a half million residents of the City, "For all your medical needs - coughs, colds, broken bones, heart attacks, itchy rashes, please make your way to Harefield Hospital to see doctors and nurses". Harefield Hospital is the leading Heart Surgery hospital in the Region, and indeed there are doctors and nurses there. For about 100 patients Harefied Hospital might be the appropriate place to go for treatment but for the other 8 million it would be totally over the top. Very expensive, much too high tech, too crowded, staff rushed and overwhelmed This is what is happening to the maternity services. Women should be assessed in the Midwifery Led Unit and kept there if they are comfortable there. Or even more sensible, women should be assessed at home and kept there if they are happy there. Once you put them in the high tech Obstetric Unit, Once you interfere by inducing and accelerating you make labour more painful, more stressful for the baby and you put the woman and her baby at greater risk. It is also a much more expensive way of providing care. And does it work - in the Times 17/11/2022 "Women are four times as likely to die after childbirth in Britain as in Scandinavian countries." We are not doing well, it is tragic when we were such a leader of maternity care. I lay a lot of it at the door of the RCOG who have flooded the Service with too many Obstetricians disabling midwifery care and veering too much intervention, too soon, on too many women. We are mammals and mammals are very, very good at giving birth safely if they are supported and not interfered with unnecessarily - take note! |
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I'm hoping that you will write to me with comments and suggestions Email: caroline.midwife@gmail.com Tel: 07973 657 642 Web: CarolineFlintMidwife.com or TikTok |
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This is a workbook to help you to set up an Albany Type Scheme If you let me have your postal address I will send you one or you can download it off my web page. I'm sorry if you have already given me your postal address and have received nothing - that will be rectified soon as I am feeling so much better. |
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