Giving Birth In A High-Intervention System with Guests Sheena Byrom OBE and Professor Soo Downe

Oh, that's a great question, and, uh, if only we had a, a, a magic wand that we could have everything we wanted.

And I guess that's, you know, I think the best chance in England, uh, that we ever had was with Better Births, uh, you know, the, the, the policy, the first policy that came out that, um, uh, w- that was, that had been founded on listening to women and families and staff, came out with the suggestion that we had continuity of carer.

Continuity of midwifery carer, really is, and we've, we, we've known this for, for so long, uh, through the evidence and through anecdotal practice as well.

But, you know, it, we, you're just providing gold standard care.

Uh, a- anybody would want to see the same person, I would say, uh, rather than having the fr- a fragmented care that we have now.

I'm speaking to, uh, families and, and to midwives who are just not seeing the same person twice.

So how can that be safe in one, in, in one respect, but also how can it be enjoyable and, you know, building relationships, relational care is probably the, the key, the key, uh, phrase that we could, should be using in terms of what, what we should be having.

Because if you have, if you have ex- well, if you have well-educated, well-supported, nurtured, uh, uh, midwives with enough resources to provide continuity of ca- midwifery care, carer, and they're working in a system that supports them to do that, then you, I, I, I can't see how there would be any, any problems with, with, uh, with outcomes.

I think the outcomes would increase dramatically for both mother and baby, and job satisfaction for staff.

That's not to say that every midwife should work in that way, but I think that, you know, you want to see the same doctor, you want to see the same dentist.

If you've got a problem, you want to go to the same hairdresser if you like her.

You know, and we know that the outcomes are just far superior, and, uh, all the out- disadvantages that we're seeing now, all the challenges, uh, uh, in terms of outcomes for mothers and babies that Sue's talked about, would, would, would be minimized.

So I think that that would be the first thing that I would, I would suggest in terms of what sh- what works.

I know, and it's just devastating that it's been specifically taken off the list-

Mm

... of recommendations at the moment.

You know, we've, we might see, hopefully next month we'll see some renewed commitment to the-

Hopefully

... yeah, very honest, uh, obvious benefits of continuity.

Sue, anything that you would wanna add?

add?No, I think I agree with Sheena, and of course, you know, a component of that is also time, and this is al- this is, again-

Mm-hmm

... none of this is rocket science.

You know, this, this is true, uh, this is true for every area of healthcare.

As Sheena says, for every area of our life, every other professional group that we, we make contact with, it's just very, very bizarre that it seems to be resisted, you know, in, in the maternity system.