Spike in stillbirths caused by lockdown

@BitOfFun
I really feel for you.

I was having cancer treatment through lockdown. It’s really shown up the postcode lottery in ugly ways.

Just thought I'd add my experience.
I had complications with DC1 that could have ended in a stillbirth but was luckily picked up (by chance) just in time and he was delivered prematurely and is doing fine.
I was told due to this any future pregnancy would require consultant led care, medication and extra monitoring etc part of which included growth scans.
Found out I was pregnant just before pandemic. An absolute catalogue of errors/poor care from my maternity services but I've been really willing to overlook and be forgiving due to the circumstances. However I was told I wouldn't be receiving the monitoring I would normally and that there was a blanket ban on growth scans for all pregnant women at our trust unless a midwife referred them for one because they'd identified a problem.
I'd coped with all the other changes of care and appointments alone etc but this just felt completely unsafe to me. I was told there was no risk assessment for individuals it was a blanket ban.
I'm a HCP and this really didn't sit right with me, I looked up the Royal Colleges guidelines and NHS recommendations on this issue. They clearly state in someone with my history even on the lowest staffing capacity and during Covid I should be monitored, including growth scans. I emailed the evidence to my Trust who backtracked.
Those scans have picked up complications with this pregnancy that a midwife wouldn't and I'm currently under close observation by a fetal medicine specialist and in a really difficult period where the team is deciding whether baby is safer in or out.
I've had extremely poor care, poor communication, lost results, no results, some missed chances for treatment etc
However like I said I'm a HCP, to some extent I can manage my own risk and I have the education and ability to argue for care where I really feel it's been lacking.
In the next county all growth scans have been going ahead as normal.
I can well believe if there is a mix of different Trusts implementing restrictions incorrectly with women who aren't aware/empowered enough or scared to fight for care than bad outcomes will happen.
It shouldn't be such a lottery and it shouldn't be on the mum to advocate for basic care her and her baby are entitled too. Its a breeding ground for inequality and disparity of outcomes.
I feel like priorities during this epidemic have been really warped.
And this is of course a sex-based issue.
Losing a child can happen to both parents.
Poor maternal care happens to the mother.

@islandislandisland yeah that's what they say the reasons are! It's terrible!
My fasting levels were fine and so was my hba1c (this is the method they are using at the mo) so I wouldn't have been diagnosed! Even with the GTT I was one the cusp, had no glucose in my urine and I had GD. My baby was measuring small due to my placenta not working properly (a complication of GD) so I was induced at 37 weeks as they said she was better out than in! It was the correct decision. I probably would have lost her if we waited till 41 weeks undiagnosed 😔 xx

BitofFun flowers

I gave birth during lockout, April and I was one of the lucky ones who was given appointments physically as i was in my third trimester. BUT after lockdown the diabetes clinic was a ghost town whereas before there used to be a lack of space and dh getting a seat was a gamble.

I don't know how the women in first and second trimester got their urine tested or had their blood pressure measured. Maybe they had other days or it turned to telephone conversation.

I personally feel like I had the best care. But during my last appointment with my obstetrician, she handed me my medication by hand. That was surprising, but she said some pharmacies were having trouble stocking medicines and with gp closing down to telephone consultation and only taking repeat perception orders by email only, a lot of her mothers were having trouble getting their medication on time.

That's awful

I’m so sorry @BitOfFun

I’m 10 weeks pregnant and my husband is not allowed to attend my scans. I can go to the pub with him and my parents but not a scan where I find out if my pregnancy is viable. It’s bullshit.

I’ve had to pay privately for a scan earlier as if there’s bad news I want my husband there for support. I understand that’s not a viable financial option for every woman though. As always we’re second class citizens.

Absolutely heart breaking and totally avoidable.

@islandislandisland, im having that this week, crazy early in the morning morning, completely disrupting school, my husband working time set off etc,, just so we don't clash with morning clinic, to keep everyone safe, yeah i seem to age 10 years waiting for a consultant.

So sorry to hear that BitofFun , its interesting to hear there was a lack of babies in NICU, I had to have my copper coil removed and fell pregnant within 2 weeks, in my thirties so did not expect that at all, i fell pregnant in Lockdown, its my third so i know basic stuff but the care has been woeful, i need things like an Anti D,etc theres been a noticeable thing of, my community midwifes ringing me saying the records say you don't have this and this appointment etc and having to ring my hospital unit, back and forth, very frustrating, because I KNOW i need my anti D at 28 weeks i chase it up, but as a FTM i wouldn't have a clue.

BAME groups because they have had more issues

Also mortality for BAME mothers and babies is sadly higher anyway, so potentially they will be overrepresented in these figures as well.

Most decent men completely understand that the physical act of bearing a child and then labouring, including C Section, and the post natal period (bfing or not bfing, and healing) are distinct and part of the female experience of birthing. We don't need to keep bringing them into the conversation and suggesting they aren't good fathers/parents.

@DeaconBoo

They have released some findings, which found there was no increase in stillbirths in this particular hospital which would explain the significant reduction in babies born with a very low birth weight

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.06.03.20121442v1.full.pdf

So certainly would be valuable to understand if certain groups of mothers and babies have been affected elsewhere

It's worth reading the full linked article, for those that haven't.

@metallicalover I was told the glucose test where you are tested before and after intake whilst in hospital isn't being used because they 'can't have people sitting in hospital for a couple of hours' yet that's exactly what I've done every time I went for a consultant appointment face to face because they were running late
They offered me a standard blood test, the results of which two midwives had to deliberate over before telling me with little confidence that I was all fine. Not convinced I didn't have GD at all.

This is appalling.

@BitOfFun. My neighbour is in the same situation - it's a national disgrace. (Pretty much everything about the way this government has mishandled covid has been a national disgrace.)

I dont find this surprising. I have been fobbed off by my midwife a few times. Up to 25 weeks I didnt even have a midwife in my gp as mine was shielding and they didnt bother to get anyone in. I was told to ring the triage line, but when I have tried to ring the triage line it just rings out. No body answered. Not to mention they have changed their message on the line to say the line is for 'urgent issues', so it encourages you to hang up as your issue may not be 'urgent'.

It's interesting that the stillbirth statistics the OP referenced are much worse than the case or death rate from covid, yet its just deemed collateral damage 🤷‍♀️

Interested to see if this is national or localised. Looking at our trust’s stats we have had 5 stillbirths in the 6 month period March-Sept (2244 babies total). So just over 2/1000, below the national average, and in line with the target for 2.6/1000 by 2025. We followed the RCOG guidance pretty much to the letter. I felt some of our restrictions were fairly extreme early on.

I wonder if higher rates of stillbirth might correlate with areas where there are higher numbers of women speaking English as a second language or non-english speakers, as telephone contacts (which several appointments were switched to) will obviously not be appropriate for these women. It also probably comes down to the health literacy of your population generally and the factors that affect this. A lot of these things were definitely overlooked in Covid planning.

This makes me so angry and @Vebrithien I am glad your awful experience things are ok

We’ve become a one issue nation. It’s covid over everything. I can’t even see an end to the hysteria yet the collateral damage continues to mount

Its unsurprising.

What do people think antenatal care was for and what is its point?

Reading stories about how women have had no face to face contact with a midwife or next to none throughout pregnancy its going to be inevitable.

It just highlights just how undervalued the service is and how being pregnant during covid has been an 'inconvenience' and forgotten story.

Its appalling that women have been left unsupported during labour too in terms of their mental health (not to make men feel better).

I think this will eventually come out in the post covid wash but i fear that there will be no money nor political willingness to reverse the trend in care.

My waters went in mid April, at 26 weeks pregnant. I was rushed to hospital, alone, and luckily baby was okay and the labour could be stopped. Over the next 7 weeks, I had 5 more hospital admissions with bleeds and contractions. Each time, I was alone, with no visitors allowed.

DS finally arrived at 34w 1d, after an induction, following another large bleed.

DH was only allowed in to support me once I was 4cm dilated, however he nearly missed the birth, as I went from 3-10cm within an hour. I called him when it was suddenly seem that I was fully dilated, and he rushed to the hospital, to see DS born with one push. DS was then rushed away to NICU.

In NICU (in June), the staff were remarking on how quiet they were. DS was the only baby in a room designed for 4. They agreed that partially, this may be due to women not under the stress of working/less physical stress from working at home.

However, sadly, they also said that the babies that they were getting, were much sicker than usual. And they believed that this was due to women either not being able to access physical antenatal care (rather than phone appointments), or being unwilling to come to hospital "just in case" to check out reduced movements, especially as they would have to come.on completely alone.

In all, I spent a total of 17 days in hospital, alone, pregnant, bleeding and contracting, and then once DS was born, 15 days alone in NICU with a newborn. DH was allowed to visit briefly, but couldn't bring DD, which meant that we (me and DH) could not see DS together at the same time, as there was no one to have DD.

We were the lucky ones, DS is now thriving. But we've also been abandoned by the health visitors, he is supposed be weighed every two weeks, and the health visitor hasn't answered my messages for 7 weeks now. Thankfully, DS is my second, and we're not having any feeding issues.

All in all, it's been a shit storm.

@BitOfFun that's awful. I'm so sorry.

There was a thread on here a few weeks ago where a woman was saying she had a friend who was ranting on about how there were fewer premie babies during covid and it was because women were being left to get on with it and how good it was etc etc. But this natural birther type had completely missed that there was also a corresponding increase in still births.

The knock on effects of Covid are only starting to be felt. Maternity services are definitely a feminist issue but I'd had the rider that as @bitoffun can testify, it wasn't just women's health issues that were totally ignored.

@BitOfFun

Her health, impacting her baby's health, which then impacts the whole family.