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Information for Health Professionals

… Learning points: Puerperal sepsis (7.4, page 102)

Any problems noted during a woman’s hospital stay should be reported directly to her community carers (GP, midwives and health visitors) when she is discharged in order that appropriate follow up visits may be arranged and the significance of developing symptoms recognised.

Early discharge means that some women will develop …

Screen for GAS

… tonight reported further in the aftermath of the two tragic deaths at The Royal Hampshire County Hospital in Winchester.

The hospital has, to reassure its patients, implemented a screening programme for Group A Streptococcus, but it doesn't plan to continue with it beyond the short term.

So, is it just a PR exercise, or is this test an accurate and useful weapon against childbed fever …

No news would have been good news

… (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 was acknowledged that GAS is not a …

Unfamiliarity breeds infection

… failure to appreciate the severity of the woman’s condition with resultant delays in referral to hospital, delays in administration of appropriate antibiotic treatment and late or no involvement of senior medical staff. There were some cases where doctors said they were already so busy dealing with other urgent problems that they were unable to see women for some time after admission. It was …

Dear NHS, please wake up

… her, so I won't use specifics) was unwell a couple of days after delivering a baby in a London hospital. Told that she had tendonitis in her foot, she was sent home.

Progressively worse, she took herself to A&E and demanded to be taken seriously as she couldn't possibly be feeling that ill just because of a foot complaint.

When humoured by the staff and given proper attention, she …

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 a traumatic experience for …

Premature baby dies - Daily Mail

… just read this horrific story: Premature baby dies after mother has to deliver it herself in new hospital in the Daily Mail.

Where were the midwives that the health service so badly needs? When are we going to lose the initiatives, 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 …

Breast is best

… and she continued to do so for six months.

Her biggest sadness when she first was admitted to hospital and was being giving a rich cocktail of drugs, was that she wouldn't be able to breastfeed Emily until she was better. It really upset her.

I was really touched and pleased to find that a fellow blogger has picked up on my website and Jessica's story, and is helping to spread the word. …

Deliver us from this disaster

… of Jessica's friends have said that they were not adequately looked after post-natally, both in hospital and at home afterwards although, luckily, no permanent damage was done.

I've just watched Channel 4's Dispatches programme, 'Undercover Mother', and I'm not so sure any more. It showed that babies are also suffering from inadequately resourced Maternity services.

A few months ago BBC1 …

Campaign: what's the aim?

… regular observations recorded on a Modified Early Obstetric Warning System (MEOWS) chart - in hospital and at home.

Every doctor and midwife to have clear sepsis guidelines.

If a mother complains of feeling unwell or shows a temperature (in particular over 38°C) she should be assumed to have contracted childbed fever until it can be proved otherwise.

There is no need, …