Maternity services. Volume II, Minutes of evidence.
- Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Health Committee
- Date:
- 1992
Licence: Open Government Licence
Credit: Maternity services. Volume II, Minutes of evidence. Source: Wellcome Collection.
311/320 (page 643)
![16 January 1992] [Continued January 1992 Chairman 1563. May I welcome our second group of witnesses. Perhaps as we come to the end of taking formal evidence into maternity services it is very appropriate that we should have women coming before us who have very recently given birth so that they can tell us first-hand of their experience and what they would like to see the maternity services provide in this country, where they are critical of them, where they are, as it were, praising them, and also why, in the cases of the witnesses that we have in front of us today, you chose to have a home delivery. We are very interested because our report would be incomplete without the sort of evidence and views which I have no doubt you are going to explain to us and put to us today. I am not saying there is any one of you who is the spokesperson for the group in front of us but shall we start with the one who has been mentioned, Ruth Unwin from Wakefield in Yorkshire. Could you tell us of your experience, your views of maternity services as you have experienced them yourself? (Ms Unwin) | think the Members of the Committee have all had the letter which I sent to David, which outlines mainly why I wanted a home delivery for my second baby. When I had my first baby I was advised to have the baby in hospital. I was quite happy to do that because I did not know what to expect at all, but after the experience of being in hospital the first time I felt I would like to have a home delivery for the second one, primarily because going into hospital meant my husband was restricted to visiting hours and so could not come to see me so much and could not participate in the event of the birth so much. I also was unhappy about the way the staff had intervened when I was trying to get used to my new baby—things like taking the baby off to the nursery in the morning while I was having breakfast, that sort of thing. There were also certain things about hospital routine which I felt were restrictive; in particular the fact that, regardless of whether the baby wanted feeding, I had to take my meals at a particular time—the baby could be screaming for his meal and I could not take it with me and feed it, he had to be left in his bed. Those were the main reasons I wanted to have a home birth when I found I was pregnant the second time. I spoke to my GP who was, as David has said, my GP since I was a child and he immediately referred me for maternity services at the hospital and I remember the kind of stunned silence when I said actually I wanted a home delivery. He said, ‘Well, really our practice is no longer able to offer that. We don’t feel the doctors have the experience to offer it”’. 1564. At that stage did he talk about the role of midwives at all? (Ms Unwin) My midwife was there as well because I actually booked in for an antenatal visit and the midwife who was there had seen me through my antenatal care prior to the delivery of our first child. After he was born she said she would recommend me for home delivery but, as the midwife attached to the practice, she then had to change her stance so that she now as a community midwife does not actually deliver babies unless they are registered with the GP of another practice. So she goes in as a support midwife but does not deliver babies herself. I do not think, talking to her after the baby was born, that she was entirely happy about that but the situation is, as the midwife attached to that practice, that is what happens to her. So I had quite a lot of lengthy discussions at many visits with my doctor and she could advise was either that I book into hospital for the minimum time, which is six hours, or “if you want to take the risk completely upon yourself you can wait until you know the baby is coming, ring for an ambulance and midwife, and that way you will get a home delivery”. Obviously that was not satisfactory. I was in the event on my own when I went into labour because my husband was working away. We could not have done that. We had several discussions about the situation and said to my doctor I was going to write to the Family Health Service Authority in my area. He said there was not a GP within our district who would offer home delivery to a woman who was not already registered with the practice. Virginia Bottomley said in her reply that there are some GPs who offer the service to people already registered with them and I know that Stanley Health Centre, my local health centre, has done about 4 deliveries within the last year but only to people already registered with them. I did not want to change my doctor because I had been with that doctor for a long time and I could have gone to another doctor simply for that service; but that option is not open to you because no GP will take you on as a new patient. Whether there is home delivery in an area depends on the attitude of the consultants because I understand they have to authorise a patient transferring to another GP for maternity services only. I think that just about really sums up my situation. There were a few things I wanted to raise on Virginia Bottomley’s replies. 1565. Can I give the other mums an opportunity to come in, then by all means do come back. I hope each and every one of you will say what you would like to see the maternity services in this country offer you. (Ms Hedderwick) 1 had two different experiences with my eldest'child and this baby. Both times I had opted for a home delivery and the first time I had a labour that was very prolonged and needed transfer to hospital, which happened practically, if not](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32222907_0311.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
