Green Party pledge to reduce c section rates

Why on earth are they sticking their oar in here? Total nonsense policy that will put mothers and babies at risk.

The more policies the Greens talk about, the less electable they become, which is good. The only place they did get elected (Brighton) was a total shit show.

It's a fundamental lack of understanding of obstetric issues.

Yes, there can be a cascade of interventions that can lead to instrumental/surgical deliveries in labours that might have ended in SVDs if "left alone".

But it's ignoring the fact that, due to medical advances, more and more women are now becoming pregnant and carrying to term what are termed "high risk pregnacies". They need intervention and closer monitoring. Unstable diabetes, coronary heart disease, severe lung conditions, immune system issues, clotting disorders etc etc etc.

That and the fact, that surgery is overall safer than decades before (though still high risk), and many women want to chose how they deliver.

Yet another reason to not vote green.

birth is treated as a normal and non-medical event, in which mothers are empowered and able to be in control.”

This is such misguided and unscientific nonsense. Attitudes like this have been at the heart of so much of the degradation of maternity care.

The fact a supposedly progressive party is championing this is disturbing.

Watched Springwatch this week. Runt chick didn't get enough to eat and was torn up by the parents to feed to the other chicks. That's natural too.

Just because it's "natural" at a species level doesn't mean I want nature to take its course and have an unassisted vaginal birth for my footling breech baby.

Why are they involved at all. But it’s the Green Party they aren’t in any danger of getting in are they.

birth is treated as a normal and non-medical event, in which mothers are empowered and able to be in control.”

That normal, non-medical event killed an awful lot of women and babies before modern medical care.

This is chilling. Misogyny and Puritanism dressed up as a progressive policy.

Theres always been a bossy shading into authoritarian tendency about some pro environment politicians but this is in a different league and would be a total dealbreaker for me if I had ever considered voting Green (which I hadn’t really).

I think the frothing about “intervention” in labour is unscientific nonsense anyway and pernicious nonsense which as others have said is associated with some very dangerous approaches to managing childbirth. But whatever your view on this it’s not a proper subject for politicians to involve themselves in. Really shocked to have read this.

The Greens are such an embarrassment of a party. On the radio the other day the presenter even said “now that the parties are committed to green targets, what is the point of your party any more” and she just fluffed and scrambled.

In Australia now they’re a bunch of racist, anti Jew, anti women communists who would do away with private healthcare and private schools. They are as hard left as it’s possible to be in this day and age.

YES YES YES.Thank you @goldenpears

Did they not read the Ockenden Review?! Honestly policies like this make me so sad. Yes birth is a natural event but it can’t be sugarcoated that it comes with incredible risks too that often need to be medically managed. I had a ventouse delivery with DC1 and an ELCS with DC2. Both were very necessary. I’m a huge advocate for natural birth where appropriate but this sounds like a sledgehammer policy that would not benefit women.

It’s a reactive stance not a proactive one.

If they really were concerned they would be talking about improving antenatal care, more appts, additional scans, better facilities in delivery units and more home birth teams etc.

It always annoys me with this argument that they label C-section as risky but what about vaginal birth. That comes with a risk too!

The article says the Green Party has pledged
“We will work to reduce the number of interventions in childbirth, and change the culture of the NHS so that birth is treated as a normal and non-medical event, in which mothers are empowered and able to be in control.”

They point to the high caesarean rate as a concern:
“The incidence of medical intervention in childbirth has escalated in recent years, particularly the rate of caesarean sections, which are expensive and, when not medically required, risky.”

I think their pledge to reduce the number of medical interventions is a good one as unecessary interventions do cause avoidable emergency c-sections. For example, breaking your waters manually increases risk of cord prolapse which causes an emergency csection. If they didn’t intervene to break your waters, then that risk and the resultant number of csections disappear.

There isn’t anything about reducing csections to an arbitrary number or limiting elective csections. They did admit that their pledge may have unintended messages and said
”In response to concerns raised about the wording and intent of the policy, Dr Devulapalli wrote on X: “There is no intention to stop or reduce medical care provision during pregnancy and childbirth.”

And I assume the party are all top level obstetricians? Honestly I despair at the political think tanks that don't have the cop on to read the bloody room on women's health and stay in their lane!