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Women put lives at risk with DIY births, says midwife boss
Sophie Goodchild10.09.08
Women are resorting to risky "DIY" births because of a lack of choice, the head of the Royal College of Midwives warned today.
Ministers have promised motherstobe the option of having their child in hospital, at home or in a midwife-led birthing centre.
But Dame Karlene Davis, RCM general secretary, revealed this pledge is being sidelined by health reforms.
These include hospital restructuring and the introduction of "super surgeries" which have been proposed by health minister Lord Darzi.
In an interview with the Standard, the midwife said the result was a rise in women giving birth without medical help - a trend known as "freebirthing".
Dame Karlene said: 'It's very easy with Darzi for maternity care to get forgotten. Some women aren't certain about homebirths and others want them but the service can't provide.
"The worry is that women will do it themselves. If you're not offering women choice then that is the danger.
Technology and the internet has led to people thinking they can do this [ freebirthing]. If a woman has had a positive experience then people think it's something worth trying."
Freebirthing is already a fast-growing trend in the US and is now catching on in the UK. British mother Julia Wilson gave birth to her son Lucien last year without assistance and posted the video on the web.
Freebirth devotees refuse any sort of intervention because they want the birth to be as intimate as possible. But birth experts warn that resorting to these extreme methods could put mothers and babies at risk.
Dame Karlene said talk shows are also to blame for influencing women's decisions and that mothers-to-be need more clarity about the reality of giving birth.
She said: 'Talk shows don't help. Women listen to other women. Some women don't have a very positive experience of Caesarean but others do. It's not about trying to negate the experiences of women - what we need is clarity.
"If you buy a house you would talk to your solicitor. You need to talk to professionals and it's not about professionals wanting to control women's experiences. Childbirth is never an exact science."
Rising birth rates and a shortage of midwives mean that maternity services in London are already in crisis.
Some women are being turned away by hospitals because of overcrowding or forced to give birth on dirty wards.
Dame Karlene says the problem could be overcome if women were offered the choice of giving birth at home or in a maternity-led birth centre. But she said this was not possible until midwife shortages were addressed.
The RCM has called for an extra 5,000 midwives to be recruited by PCTs who slashed numbers when the NHS was in financial crisis.
Reader views (2)
Its quite natural to have DIY births - it only when complications are expected that its best to have someone on hand to deal with them. The majority of babies could be born without the interference of the medics.
- Rogan, DFW TX
The reality of giving birth in Kingston was being sent home by hospital (despite my wife's waters having broken and them not examining her and it being her first baby) and then having an emergency delivery at home with an ambulance and midwives a couple of hours later. We had to go into West Middlesex the next week and having seen the state of that hospital (filthy & too many rude staff) I'm actually glad we had her at home!
- David In London, London UK
