This document summarizes research on women's experiences with maternity care and proposes solutions to promote more compassionate care. It notes that only half of women surveyed had the birth they wanted and many felt their experiences negatively affected their self-image. International research also found instances of disrespect and abuse in institutional maternity care. The document advocates for both macro-level solutions like adopting human rights frameworks and micro-level solutions like role modeling compassionate care. It emphasizes that small acts of kindness can transform traumatic experiences and promoting virtuous cycles of love over manufactured fear can improve care.
6. Only half of the women we surveyed had the birt
h they
wanted. The majority felt that their childbirth experie
nces
affected their self-image and relationships with their
baby and their partner.
A significant proportion of these
women believed that the effect was negative.
September 2013 1,100 women
Photo: Birthrights birthrights.co.uk
14. Dignity in maternity: the power
of human rights to improve
care for childbearing women
Elizabeth Prochaska
15. Human Rights
‘The principle of human dignity demands that every person is
treated as an end in herself, and not as a means to an end. It
provides a basis for respectful maternity care and treats women
as capable of making their own autonomous decisions about
birth’
‘A human rights approach to healthcare promotes positive and
respectful relationships between women and their caregivers, and
can guard against harm in childbirth’ Elizabeth Prochaska 2014
26. Delivery Big baby
Only 3cms....
Labour wardPain relief
Birth SuiteWorking with pain
Patient
Birth Fantastic!
You are 3 cms!
Refused
Woman
Healthy
baby
Declined
31. I came across a spectacularly compassionate midwife once (actually she
was a student) whose actions transformed a very traumatic experience
and for that I have always been immensely grateful so if this in some tiny
way pays back Sharon’s kindness then that would be wonderful.
My first baby was born by c-section under a general anaesthetic after a
cascade of fear-based interventions culminating in an incompetent
registrar panicking. Afterwards I had a whole host of hospital staff
visiting, because a GA section was a rare event, and most of them
strutted in with an ‘isn’t modern medicine marvellous, all-that-matters-is-
a-healthy-baby’ spiel that really p***d me off. Sharon was the ONLY one
who came in, said ‘well, that didn’t go so well did it’, held my hand and
told me about those precious first few minutes of my daughter’s life that
we’d missed. Even my husband wasn’t in the room when she was born
and hearing about how she looked and sounded and what happened to
her made an incalculable difference.
Helen Bilton
The small things
33. There are only two feelings: Love
and fear. There are only two
languages: Love and fear. There are
only two activities: Love and fear.
There are only two motives, two
procedures, two frameworks, two
results. Love and fear.
Building virtuous cycles
Prof Soo Downe
Michael Leunig's prayers from A Common
Prayer
34. We can differentiate between the fear
that is real and protects us, and the
fear that is manufactured and
strangles us.
Manufactured fear reflects how we see
women and birth. (Dahlen 2010)
A little about our conversations…my sessions, Gill’s research v Positive stories of courage and compassion….
Tell the story of doctor in ED, then ask delegates to pause…
Increasing intervention rates
Dissatisfaction
Disrespect and abuse
Kirkup
Fear endemic both women and families and maternity care workers
Increased buraucracy and risk management leads to more fear, potential for more mistakes. What is safety?
Social Movement
Activist
Respectful relationships
Fear endemic both women and families and maternity care workers
Increased buraucracy and risk management leads to more fear, potential for more mistakes. What is safety?
Arguably, it is fear that drives current pathological ways of doing birth. Fear of things going wrong, fear of being sued, fear of not being competent in the new technologies. Could it be that a turn towards love as the basis of maternity care may change the high rates of intervention for women and children, while still keeping them clinically safe?
Capacity not catastrophe
Tell the story of doctor in ED, then ask delegates to pause…