Make Birth Better
Ideas to improve
This theme described the culture of secrecy and pressure to ‘suffer in silence’ throughout pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. Women seemed to feel that they were unprepared for birth, that many things during birth came as a total shock. During and after birth, they described messages (both actual and imagined) that led them to feel that they could or should not speak about their feelings. This contributed to a general sense that the impact of their birth should be dealt with alone. When help was considered, women described not knowing where they could go for help. For those who did manage to seek help from services, or personal During the campaign, women and birthing professionals were asked to include their thoughts on what would ‘make birth better’ in their stories: this was included as Theme 5.
Dr Emma Svanberg divided these into messages applicable throughout the maternity journey: for pregnant women and their partners, maternity professionals and wider society. Theme 5 was a big accelerator for the start of Make Birth Better and encouraged Emma to write her book Why Birth Trauma Matters. It reflected many of the themes already described, the need for pregnant women to be better informed about all of the different possible outcomes in birth, to be granted as much support and reassurance as possible during birth, and to seek help after a difficult birth if necessary.
Extract from the book: Why Birth Trauma Matters
Theme 5 in summary
“This extended to very clear suggestions for birth professionals too, again prior to, during and after birth. These centred around encouraging women to be informed of different possible outcomes and aspects of birth, but also underlined the need for women to feel respected during birth. Women spoke frequently about simply needing more time. This is something that not only needs to be heard by healthcare professionals, but healthcare prividers and commissioners too. As well as by all of us. Being prepared to give women time to explore their hopes and fears for birth, to support maternity professionals to do this, and to be open to discussing birth stories without offering platitudes would in itself go a long way to improving women’s experiences of birth.
“‘What would make birth better? Time. Everything felt so rushed. I saw seven different midwives and it took hours to get pain relief. I think if midwives have the time to support, listen and care for a woman in labour whether she is 1 cm dilated or 10. But yes, just more time would have been wonderful. After the birth too. You need someone to sit, listen and talk you through. Maybe offer a hand squeeze and a cuppa too.”
