The Guardian
Listen to any group of new parents talking about their birth experience, and here’s a phrase you’ll almost certainly hear. “At least,” someone will say, “the baby was all right. That’s all that really matters.” That comment will come after one of the group has poured out a story that fell very far short of ideal – a story in which she felt she was ignored, not listened to, disempowered, neglected. A birth that typically started well, but turned into a scary (sometimes terrifying) rollercoaster, from which the new family was left so shaken that they were genuinely grateful that they were even still alive.
These questions are at the heart of a campaign launching today that calls for a rethink on what matters most in childbirth in the western world in the 21st century. Childbirth charity Birthrights is calling for a reappraisal of how we judge a successful birth: no longer should it be merely about physical health, but about psychological health as well. According to new research carried out by Mumsnet for Birthrights, fewer than half of all women in the UK get the birth they want.
The new figures, based on a survey of 1,100 Mumsnet users who have had babies in the past three years, found only 68% of pregnant women were given a choice about where to give birth, 31% did not feel in control of their birth experience; 23% said they weren’t given a choice about where they wanted to be during labour, and 18% didn’t think health professionals had listened to them. A shocking 24% of women who had had instrumental births said they had not consented to the procedure.
And does it matter? Yes it does. In fact, the body of evidence about how much it matters is mushrooming, so that it seems almost absurd to anyone who knows anything about children’s development that we still think that a baby’s physical health at the birth is all that matters.
The Mumsnet survey gives a clue to why: most of the mothers questioned said their baby’s birth affected how they felt about themselves, and 41% felt that impact was negative (rising to 73% in women who had had instrumental deliveries).
Almost half the women questioned thought the birth experience had affected their relationship with their baby, and for 22% the impact was negative; again, for women who had an instrumental delivery that proportion rose dramatically, to 59%.
