Oh that Aust MPs would understand let alone be active about such
Denise
Maternity
services lacking, say MPs
John Carvel, social affairs editor Thursday July 24, 2003 The
Guardian
A Labour-controlled committee of MPs
complained yesterday that the government was doing nothing to keep its promise
to give all pregnant women the choice of a home birth.
The Commons
health committee said 2% of babies are born at home, but up to 20% of mothers
would prefer this type of delivery had they the choice. Julia Drown, the
chairwoman of the maternity services subcommittee, said the former health
secretary Alan Milburn had promised in 2001 that all women would get the choice.
Yet the Department of Health had taken no direct action to achieve this.
"We heard evidence that women who chose home births had this option
withdrawn from them at a late stage in their pregnancies, on the grounds that
sufficient staffing could not be guaranteed to support the birth," she said. "We
find this practice wholly unacceptable.
"Women should not be faced with
the option of having to have their baby in hospital against their will, or, as
has happened, to give birth alone at home."
The committee said too many
women were being given caesareans without having the opportunity to exercise
informed choice. The government should address concern that birth was no longer
perceived as a normal physiological process.
It should tell NHS trusts
to stop limiting women to a single birth partner and support the use of birth
pools during labour.
The MPs also highlighted concerns about the closure
of smaller maternity units and birth centres, midwife shortages and a lack of
experienced obstetricians.
They noted that the maternal death rate in
unemployed families in England was 20 times higher than among women in the two
highest social classes. Also, a disproportionate number of women from traveller
families died in childbirth or shortly afterwards.
The MPs said they
were shocked to hear that in many parts of the country there were not enough
specialist mother and baby units for women suffering severe mental health
problems after the birth.
There was also concern that recommendations
from a past committee about helping women and families affected by disabilities
had seen little progress.
Mothers who did not speak English as a first
language often had to depend on relatives to interpret, "which may be
appropriate in some circumstances but not in others", the committee
said.
SocietyGuardian.co.uk �
Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
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