There is no 'right' for British women to have pain relief when in labour!

Gill

My neighbours daughter recently gave birth in a large UK teaching hospital to her second child.

The baby was a very large 10 lb boy and the labour went horrendously, during which grandma and the mother's partner had to argue with medical staff for help and pain relief.

They were told that women in labour have no 'right' to pain relief in the United Kingdom and despite the fact that this young woman was screaming in total despair for nearly fifteen hours before four doctors turned up to help her and give her an epidural anaesthetic., she had no help but gas and air which didn't help her at all. The hospital was crowded with young Polish women also giving birth and the staff midwives told the girl's mother that they had to concentrate on these Polish young women as they did not speak English and many of their babies were at risk because they were so small.

This young woman did not even have a private room to herself but was in a crowded ward!

The young neighbour's baby twice went into distress with his heart rate dropping desperately low. He was very large, in the wrong position for birth and basically ignored by the midwives along with his mother whom I understand may well be a victim of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder after her experience.

When he was born with manual help as he had to be turned internally, they believed him to be still born. After a while he revived and has been feeding. He is bruised and black and blue from his experience and his mother.....well, let's just say she's not doing to well after a post partum haemorrage.

All I can say is that I have heard a lot of these horror stories just lately from british maternity hospitals including mother's being turfed out of hospital at 2 am only 4 - 5 hours after giving birth. I know because our daughter in law and baby had to be picked up at 2 am on a freezing night!

Britain's maternity services are in melt down and all I can say is, if you are British, make sure you've got someone to fight for you and your baby when you go into hospital, just in case it's as busy as our local.

Maybe Britain is in melt down too if we don't consider women 'worthy' of pain relief!

I haven't heard of many men having to have vasectomy's without pain relief of too many people having dental treatment without help, but women.....well, they're just not worth it......are they?

momzcrazy

Now that is just horrible! Why did they choose to go that hospital in the first place? I would have had heads rolling down the corridors if I had been treated that way. Nevermind my husband and sister in law, who is an RN. That is sad that wonderful birth memories have been taken away from that new mommy.

momz

aSphereisnotaCircle

That is just awful.

I had my first two at home. Giving birth to my second baby was horrendous, I swore to myself I would never forget the pain and if i ever got pregnant again I would have it in the hospital so I could have something for the pain.

My third was born in a hospital and I was treated very well.

The part I appreciated the most was that even with needing to have a c-section, my baby was never once out of my sight.

Sirona

Which hospital was it? You say it was a training hospital?

I'm pregnant and British, so of course this news is news to me!

My local hospitals all offer various types of pain relief as standard. I have yet to choose which one to give birth in.

Sirona

cognizant dissident

Having trained as a RN and having had a difficult birth experience myself, I am somewhat in the middle of the road on this topic.

First of all, giving birth can be a horrificly painful experience with the potential for being fatal to mother and child. Expecting that doctors and nurses can somehow always make that go away and transform the birth experience into one of warm and fuzzy memories, is an unrealistic expectation IMO.

They do the best they can to give attention and pain relief. However, if there is a shortage of doctors and nurses, and the maternity ward fills to capacity, those unfortunate enough to give birth on that day are not going to get as much attention and care then if there was only one or two women in maternity that night. Doctors and nurses have to triage. That is just reality of life in today's medicare system.

Maternity doctors and nurses also hear women screaming in labour all day, everyday. They are used to it. The amount of screaming women do sometimes has little to do with how much pain they are feeling. It is often a cultural thing. Some people are more emotive when in pain, others are silent, that doesn't mean they are suffering any less. While the norm is to make the mother as comfortable as possible unless she has requested natural childbirth, the amount of pain relief administered is limited by what is safe for the mother and baby and not by the mother's demands for her "rights". Sometimes, if the staff are busy with another pregnancy emergency, yes, the mother may have to wait a long time for pain relief. Again, that is just life. Don't forget 100 years ago, every woman gave birth without anaesthetic and many of them died too.

Cog

Sad emo

Now that IS bad!!!

It reminded me of the way an Indian colleague of mine where I used to work was treated when she had her first child - again in a large teaching hospital. Basically, the staff seemed to associate the fact that she was Indian with the assumption that as such she would be 'poor, downtrodden female who doesn't speak much English' - quite the opposite to who she really is!!

Her waters broke and she started having contractions, she arrived at the hospital, and went into an extended labour - a similar situation to Gill's neighbours story, the baby was large in comparison to the size of her mum (small build and only about 5 ft tall). She went for several hours with only gas and air - then the staff decided that they needed to induce her to speed delivery, they said in sympathetic *poor Indian woman, you're foreign therefore you must be deaf too* tone and volume! "We're going to break your waters now" - my colleagues response was obviously "Oh no you're not!!" (with a few expletives!), but they were adamant that her waters were still intact. It wasn't until a senior turned up that she was finally believed!

On another occasion (not related to pregnancy) she slipped down the stairs at work and knocked herself unconscious for a brief time so she had to go to hospital - she had a seriously hard time convincing the medical staff that she hadn't done it deliberately to avoid going home to an abusive husband!! (because *of course* all wives from the Indian subcontinent are in forced arranged marriages to abusive husbands, sheesh!)

momz - you don't get much choice of which hospital to go to over here, it's a case of where you live.

fifi40

Sirona

I wouldnt be too alarmed by this.....I have friends who have recently had babies, and I have friends who are nurses and some doctors and this does sound like a 'one off' to me............as usually care for pregnant ladies in the UK is very good and this has certainly been my experience and that of my friends and family.

As for pain relief rights in labour I have added this link for you to look at and which should allay any fears

http://www.womens-health.co.uk/pain.asp

Hope this puts your mind at rest

Fi

Gill

Cog - I appreciate your experience but this is UK in the 21st century.

I have had good and horrific labours. My first was the 'horrific' one and pain was unstoppable even with epidural anaesthetic. The end result was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I vividly remember wanting to drown myself in the bath I was due to have after the labout and the months it took to recover from flash backs and sheer horror.

I've had fantastic labours also and the best one ever was Caesarean Section.

Therefore, the question of pain relief is a very serious one as anything can happen in labour - good or bad, but it should always be the best possible.

momzcrazy

momz - you don't get much choice of which hospital to go to over here, it's a case of where you live.

Oh, OK. Here you choose your doctor based off of where you would like to give birth. With my last child I had no insurance, so I chose a bit cheaper doctor, but a better hospital. She turned out to be the best doctor out of all 3. She was even the one who performed the Essure proceedure to sterilize me. I will still go to her even with no more babies in my future.

Cog Dis, you also make some wonderful points.

Are doulas available in the UK? I think they would help in realxing the mother. I had 2 out of my three naturally. Well, with my last I had an epidural for all of 5 minutes to relax my cervix. But I still had the pain. But when he was born it was gone.

momz

willdabeerman

My wife had 2 kids. I did not see where it was all that bad. I did not feel much pain at all.

There is no 'right' for British women to have pain relief when in labour!

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