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Maternity resources

BBC NEWS | Health | 'No plans' for migrant birth rate

The government should have done more to help the NHS cope with the increase in foreign-born mothers using maternity services, the Conservatives say.

How can the government keep saying that they are working towards having a named midwife for every mother, when the number of …

Friday's Child is nearly ready

… From the jacket:

'In the summer of 2004, Ben Palmer was overjoyed when his wife Jessica gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Emily was their first daughter and a little sister for their three-year-old son Harry. They had everything they had ever wanted.

Six days later, Jessica died of childbed fever, an archaic illness that causes blood poisoning, a condition that can be easily …

No news would have been good news

There's been a fair bit of news recently (see here and here ) about two poor mothers who gave birth on the same day, in the same hospital, and who both died within three days, just before Christmas. The coverage has focused on the fact that they both had a Group A Strep infection, and there has been much talk about infections (hospital and community acquired) and superbugs.

Luckily, it …

Unfamiliarity breeds infection

… her community carers. This is particularly important in women who leave hospital a few hours after birth, ‘early discharge’, or if a woman complains of feeling feverish or unwell."

"In the past, puerperal sepsis or ‘childbed fever’ was a leading cause of maternal death and its signs and symptoms were widely known. Antisepsis, antibiotics and changing practice over the years mean that …

The petition's response

… Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence has also published clinical guidelines for both birth and post-natal care."

The CEMD's next report will again report on the mothers whose lives were not saved, including Jessica. The title of the report is again misleading and insulting spin. I have written about it before, here. The bottom line though, is that it will be another report …

Dear NHS, please wake up

… most (but not all) of these stories have happy endings, nobody, let alone a mother after childbirth, should be getting so ill in the 21st century.

If I've heard of all these stories, why hasn't the NHS, and why are they not getting the picture. How many more Jessica's have to die before they will?

Mum gives birth in car park

Mum gives birth in car park because 'hospital didn't have midwife' from the Daily Mail

Unless the NHS can ensure adequate midwifery staff numbers and stop its ludicrous plans to close maternity units I fear this is going to happen more and more.

What the bureaucrats seem to forget is that childbirth is …

Premature baby dies - Daily Mail

… the spin, the New Labour hypocrisy and get a decent level of maternity care so that childbirth becomes as safe as we keep being told it is. How many more lives must be lost?

Hospital managers have to realise that 'sincere condolences' and 'being kept up to date with changes' is not a substitute for gold standard care. No amount of empty words will console this poor mother.

Rest in …

Early warning kiss

Day in day out, I wake up too early to the pitter patter of tiny and not so tiny feet on the stairs up to the loft conversion that is my sanctuary. It's soon followed by a face in mine, and an eskimo kiss .

"Daddy, I watch telleee?"

"Climb in the other side, Emily. Come on, in you come too, …

Deliver us from this disaster

… all; rich/poor, black/white, educated/uneducated, northern/southern, married/unmarried face. Childbirth is a traumatic and dangerous event for mother and baby, and it must be provided for. To Gold Standard.

This country is not going to stop having babies, and nobody's going to limit procreation to fit a government budget. The NHS must look at the number of babies being born, look at the level …