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.
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![16 January 1992] [Continued [Sir David Price Cont] they did not even consider it as an option that it was possible for them to take. Chairman 1583. Before I come back to David, Mrs Nash, could I put a question to you? Was there any suggestion during your antenatal care, particularly at the beginning, that you could have a midwife for your delivery even if you did not have a GP? (Ms Nash) No, I have only discovered that in retrospect. 1584. So there was no suggestion, it was not mentioned to you at the time? (Ms Nash) No, I discovered that through reading. Mr Hinchliffe 1585. I was interested in the comments one or two of you made about following your instincts in the process and struck by this because this reminded me of a conversation that I had with a midwife in Holland, where the system, as you may be aware, is very different. We paid a visit to Holland, including visiting some mothers who had given birth only a few hours previously in their own homes, and the midwife—and you remember the midwife particularly, Mr Chairman,—was making reference to the way in which we were unnecessarily complicating the birth process and that the concept of pain is in a sense forced on people. She was explaining to me and I was describing the process my wife went through, and I was with her on both occasions she gave birth to our children. She was saying the pain experience is a different form of pain and that we in a sense overstate the of which occurs within a natural process and add to the complications by intervening in that. Would you share that view? (Ms Gartland) Yes. (Ms Hedderwick) Yes. (Ms Robinson) 1 would, certainly. I have been reading very recently about a physiological study of the hormonal level inside women when actually in labour and giving birth. I cannot remember the names of the hormones that are given out. I think there are some endorphins or something like that that are produced when a woman is relaxed, even though she is in pain. If a woman is relaxed she produces natural painkillers which actually help to reduce the level of pain experienced, when medical interference, even in forms of just going into hospital, for instance, and environmental changes, actually suppresses the natural production of her hormones that help in the care. So I think, coming back to instincts and doing it the way nature intended you to do it is very important in terms of the experience of pain on a very physiological level, not just an emotional level. (Ms Hedderwick) Could I just add about pain ona psychological level, I think in hospital with medical staff that are keen to give intervention where it is wanted or needed, if pain relief is offered at a time when you are feeling an extreme pain, however you are dealing with it, and offered in a way that it is the normal thing to happen, then it is much more difficult for the woman to think positively that she can get through it without that pain relief, whereas there is a sort of movement about active birth as a team that are involved in looking at natural forms of birth such as the positive psychological process of thinking, this is a pain that is a positive pain that is going to get somewhere; every contraction leads you to the birth, and those forms of psychological pain relief are as powerful as the other and if a woman expects she can get through the pain herself she will and if she is offered a pain relief then she might well take it whereas she could have got through without it. Chairman 1586. Thank you very much indeed. I am about to suggest that a partner and dad might care to make a comment. I do not know how many are still in the room. I can see one there obviously, but Ruth Unwin does have one or two comments, if you can make them very briefly, about the comments or the answers that Mrs Bottomley gave to some of our questions. (Ms Unwin) One of them is particularly the response which she made to my case, which is, unfortunately, not very relevant to the other people here but one of which has already been raised. She said in this letter; ‘““The local Family Health Services Authority will be able to provide a list.”” Nobody tells you that, nobody gives you information. I knew that myself and having taken up that offer of information from the Family Health Services Authority I actually Bottomley was seeming to imply that I did not know where to look for advice. That really was not the situation. I think everyone here knew where to look for advice and you sort of ask friends where you could find a GP who was sympathetic, but the service just was not there. And something that I thought might be worth considering is that doctors have to fulfil certain requirements to be taken on to provide maternity services as they do to provide paediatric services. Surely to provide a maternity service they ought to be able to provide the whole package, not just antenatal and postnatal care. It is insufficient for them to say, ‘““We can see you up to the point of birth and after the point of birth we cannot actually see you through the birth.” That was really the only other point I wished to make. 1587. We are very grateful. I think they are two very positive points. Can I suggest if two of the fathers who are here now, Mr Turner and Mr Johnstone, could come forward, then you can identify yourselves to us for the benefit of our shorthand writers who take down, and you may like to add to the excellent evidence that has been given? (Mr Turner) I am the husband of Deborah Hedderwick. Obviously fabulous things have been said. The man’s role, in my view, obviously is nowhere near as important as the woman’s and the child’s but I think the importance comes in, in my experience and the experience of virtually everyone else I have talked to, that the husband is very important to the woman and at home, for all the reasons that have been said before, you get much more control and the husband is much more part of it. I have just one little point about going into hospital. It is fairly well accepted that any disturbance in pregnancy, in labour, can actually bring about a reduction in the progress of that labour and it is frequently said how many women think they are going into labour, rush to hospital, then it all starts to go away again. I think that is not surprising](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b32222907_0317.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
