Shocking new report into birth trauma reveals widespread poor care across maternity services

A Parliamentary Report on Birth Trauma aims to ‘work towards a maternity system that is woman-centred and where poor care is the exception rather than the rule’.

A government inquiry into maternity services has heard from more than 1,300 women who have experienced a traumatic birth. The report states that the stories they heard from parents were ‘harrowing’ and that in many cases, the trauma was caused by mistakes and failures occurring before and during labour.

The report details case studies from several women who have come forward to tell their stories. These include: a woman whose traumatic birth lead to her daughter suffering a hypoxic brain injury, a women whose son was diagnosed with a hypoxic brain injury as a result of proven medical negligence, women who suffered a fourth-degree tear during birth resulting in incontinence and pain and incidents of baby’s dying shortly after birth due to a failure to monitor the baby’s heart rate during birth and a failure to monitor baby post-natally.

Main Themes

The overwhelming narrative in the responses to the inquiry were of distress and neglect.

The following themes were also seen repeatedly:

• Failure to listen: often women were told that they were being over-anxious and their physical symptoms were wrongly diagnosed as a psychological problem.
• Lack of informed consent: many women were not informed that they had raised risks of particular complications or their request for a caesarean section was denied either before or during labour.
• Poor communication: many were not told what was happening during labour or were not told about new diagnoses. In other cases, there were communication mix ups where midwives accidentally read from the wrong baby’s notes.
• Lack of pain relief: a significant number of submissions to the inquiry referred to a lack of pain relief, with some women suffering third-degree tears as a result.
• Postnatal care: the inquiry heard that many women were left alone on the postnatal ward, unable to move or lift their baby. Many reported that they would ring the bell to call for help but nobody came. Several women had stories of being left to lie in their own blood, urine or excrement.
• Complaints and Medical Negligence: many reported that their birth trauma was heightened due to the hospitals’ failure to deal sensitively with complaints about poor care. The report states that the duty of candour, introduced in the wake of the Francis Report requiring health professionals to report to the patient where something has gone wrong, is not being applied effectively.

What would a ‘good’ maternity service look like in the UK?

The inquiry reports that it is possible to reduce the incidence of harm and where harm does occur, it recommends that women and their partners are better supported.

The following recommendations are made:

• Antenatal education: all women should have access to good quality antenatal education, allowing them to learn what giving birth involves, what the risks are and what choices they may need to make during labour.
• Listening to women: concerns such as bleeding and reduced fetal movements should be taken seriously and investigated. The default assumption that women are being over-dramatic or anxious needs to be removed.
• Safe working environment for staff: all maternity units should be fully staffed and midwifes, gynaecologists and obstetricians should work as a team.
• Postnatal care: all women should receive good quality postnatal care and should be given appropriate help on the postnatal ward. Staff should be trains to identify signs of illness postpartum.
• Transparency and accountability: mistakes should be treated as an opportunity to learn and improve.
• Mental health support: women and their partners should be offered routine screening in order to diagnose trauma-related illnesses after birth.

If you feel as though you have been the subject of poor maternity care, please get in touch with our specialist medical negligence solicitors. We offer a free initial consultation and act for our clients on a No Win No Fee basis.

Contact Irvings Law today on 0151 475 1999 or Clin.Neg@irvingslaw.com