by Gill 39 Replies latest jw experiences
There's no 'right' for British women to birth at home, no 'right' not to be forced to labour on your back subjected to continuous monitoring, no 'right' to labour without chemical inducement, because there are not enough midwives, because there isn't enough funding for maternity services, leaving qualified midwives unemployed.
Write to your MP, and say you want to pay more taxes for our health service!
Fe203Girl _ I believe that end of 2006 it was reported that the maternity services in Birmingham had mortality rates equaling third world countries - very frightening.
I'm sorry that this thread may be frightening for some mums to be - but forewarned means that they and their partners can be prepared and forearmed to demand help.
My neighbour got results from the midwives when she threatened to sue them all personally if anything happened to the baby or her daughter.
Sad that this has to be the case in 21st century UK!
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?
I have not heard of such atrocioius behavior here in our "barbaric" US health care system.
Behold, verily Universal Health Care in action!
We had a baby last year. We could not deliver at the midwife/doulas office after she went through 24 hours, and we were admitted in an emergency at the hospital. Beautiful luxury rooms, all new hospital (only the 3rd baby born there) painkillers, anesthesia, and a 3 day stay.
http://www.collierregional.com/getpage.php?name=facility&sub=About%20us
When I was in labor with my second child at the hospital we gave the nurse our birth plan, which consisted of what I wanted, what I didn't not want, and what was negotiable and what wasn't. I did not want an epidural because I believe it slows the birth process. I didn't not want any pain medication that could affect the baby unless absolutely neccessary. I did not want an episiotomy. I did not want a c-section unless the baby and I were in danger. When the nurse looked at the plan she said "Wow, you don't trust us do you?"
Josie
Fe203Girl - I think we know that we pay enough taxes in the UK to provide a good maternity service.
However, the government choose to spend it on putting pensioners in prison who don't pay their council tax, their own living expenses that we pay for and killing people in Iraq and Afghanistan!
Time to get rid of New Labour!
Scientology - No pain relief or screaming aloud.
The highest rate of infant mortality is in Sierra Leone...160 dead birth 1,000 born. United Nations figures still indicate that the UK isn't that far down the line for successful births so they must be doing something right most of the time -
163 United States 6.3 7.8 164 New Caledonia 6.1 8.7 165 Cyprus 5.9 6.9 166 Brunei 5.5 6.7 167 Channel Islands (Jersey and Guernsey) 5.2 6.2 168 Cuba 5.1 6.5 169 New Zealand 5.0 6.4 170 Portugal 5.0 6.6 171 Italy 5.0 6.1 172 Republic of Ireland 4.9 6.2 173 Canada 4.8 5.9 174 United Kingdom 4.8 6.0 175 Slovenia 4.8 6.4 176 Israel 4.7 5.7 177 Netherlands 4.7 5.9 178 Luxembourg 4.5 6.6 179 Australia 4.4 5.6 180 Austria 4.4 5.4 181 Denmark 4.4 5.8 182 Germany 4.3 5.4 183 Spain 4.2 5.3 184 France 4.2 5.2 185 Belgium 4.2 5.3 186 Korea, South 4.1 4.8 187 Switzerland 4.1 5.1 188 Czech Republic 3.8 4.8 189 Finland 3.7 4.7 190 Hong Kong 3.7 4.7 191 Norway 3.3 4.4 192 Sweden 3.2 4.0 193 Japan 3.2 4.2 194 Singapore 3.0 4.1 195 Iceland 2.9 3.9
The figures on the left are deaths related to newborns per 1,000 and the figure on the right is number of deaths in children under 5 per 1,000. sammieswife.
Sad that this has to be the case in 21st century UK!
Come to the US next time you have a baby, we'd be happy to have you. It seems rather popular lately. The NHS's glittering headlines:
I won't let Daddy die: Girl of six raises £4,000 for life-saving drugs the NHS won't provide
A crying shame!
Britain does have some of the very best medical staff, midwives etc in the world BUT this only explains why 'near misses' like my neighbour's grandson are saved in the nick of time!
Sammielee - the figures only show that the maternity staff are fantastic at their job BUT the maternity service is floundering in the UK and it is a tragedy in the making by an inept government.
My daughter had to take a pregnant member of staff to the local A and E department yesterday.
She said there was dried blood spattered on chairs and walls and floors and the place smelt horrible. Now she has worked in hospital as she is a medical secretary and this was the hospital she trained at. She said she used the alcohol hand scrub for when she left the hospital and the floor mat to clean her shoes when she left, NOT when she arrived, she was so disgusted at the state of the place......not at all as she remembered it three years ago!
