NHS trusts are STILL promoting natural births

The NHS is paying a controversial author to persuade midwives to promote ‘natural birth’ despite a series of baby deaths associated with it, campaigners have claimed.

At least two trusts have allowed Sheena Byrom to give talks to midwives that include pro-natural birth messages, enraging parents who have lost babies after being encouraged towards normal birth.

This is when a birth takes place without a caesarean section, induction, instruments or epidural.

Mrs Byrom, a midwifery consultant, was paid £4,190.20 to lead study days at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust, which was put into special measures last year over serious failings.

At least two trusts have allowed Sheena Byrom to give talks to midwives that include pro-natural birth messages

She also addressed midwives and students at Derby Teaching Hospitals Trust, where she said: ‘We need a solution to increasing intervention. We can’t continue as we are.’

The issue has been increasingly controversial since the avoidable deaths between 2004 and 2013 of 11 babies and a mother in the Morecambe Bay scandal, where midwives known as ‘the musketeers’ pursued natural births ‘at any cost’.

Rhiannon Davies, 43, who lost her newborn baby after being encouraged to give birth naturally, said: ‘People like Sheena Byrom have got their own agenda and they are frankly dangerous. It’s terrifying that these talks are given an NHS platform.’

The Royal College of Midwives dropped its Normal Birth Campaign three years ago after conceding it ‘created the wrong idea’.

But in her talk at Derby Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust last month, Mrs Byrom said: ‘Do we really believe that women’s bodies are so faulty that less than 40 per cent will give birth without intervention?’

A Freedom of Information request revealed that at the Walsall trust 129 midwives attended compulsory training, learning that natural birth is ‘women centred’, while intervention by doctors is a ‘bio-medical ideology’.

Freda Marsh, 22, who nearly died after being denied a caesarean in June, said: ‘I’m disgusted. Women don’t go in saying they want a caesarean because they are lazy, or too posh to push – it’s because they feel they need one to be safe.’

Freda Marsh, 22, who nearly died after being denied a caesarean in June says she's disgusted at people who want the procedure being dismissed

Freda Marsh, 22, who nearly died after being denied a caesarean in June says she’s disgusted at people who want the procedure being dismissed

Maureen Treadwell, of the Birth Trauma Association, said: ‘There’s this powerful lobby that want to keep the normal birth agenda going. They have to remember it has been responsible for babies dying.’

Mrs Byrom said: ‘I was invited to go to the trust in response to a CQC report that the trust had a higher-than-average caesarian rate and intervention rate. I’m not campaigning for anything.’

The Walsall NHS trust said: ‘Our review of policies, guidelines and training has been based on our aim to increase opportunities for normal birth without compromising safety.’ Derby Teaching Hospitals Trust said: ‘As one of only two trusts in the East Midlands in the first wave of a national maternity safety collaborative, we are fully committed to safety and improvement in maternity care.’

I begged for a caesarean… then nearly died in labour 

Freda Marsh contracted sepsis after a 64-hour labour ordeal in June, during which she was repeatedly refused a caesarean.

The 22-year-old first-time mother knew she was going to have a big baby and at her 30-week clinic asked her midwife for a caesarean.

Miss Marsh, from Stevenage, said: ‘They said the hospital policy is that they would prefer us to have a normal birth. I was crying.’

The proof-reader, who stands 5ft 3ins, added: ‘I was terrified for my son’s life. I remember thinking “he’s just too big for me”.’ After close to three days in labour at Stevenage’s Lister Hospital, midwives realised her baby was coming feet first, and an emergency caesarean was performed.

Sydney was born weighing 8lbs 15oz and taken into intensive care while his mother battled to survive.

Miss Marsh said: ‘If they had just given me that elective c-section when I asked I wouldn’t have nearly died, and my son wouldn’t have gone to intensive care. I’m pretty disgusted by these lectures. I can’t believe it, it’s such a shock.’

Rhiannon Davies, 43, lost her daughter Kate in March 2009 after being encouraged to have a natural birth. Mrs Davies said: ‘There were so many things that were concerning during labour. I was saying, “just pull it out”, and they were saying, “we don’t do that, we don’t intervene”.’

After a 31-hour labour in Ludlow Hospital, Shropshire, Kate was born, but she died six hours later. A coroner’s hearing found that Kate could have survived had she been born at a hospital staffed by obstetricians rather than a centre with midwives only. 

 

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