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Original poster

NHS Maternity Services "not fit for purpose"

4 replies

Cheeseandolivesplease · 30/06/2026 19:39

Absolutely appalling.
I can't begin to imagine what some of these families have had to go through.
But why has this come as such a shock when it's been going on for so long?
It's one of the (many) reasons I personally opted for a private home birth in 2020 following two (quite frankly unsafe) NHS hospital births.
What needs to change?

OP posts:
Darragon · 30/06/2026 23:55

Care. The people doing the job need to show their patients that they care. And take care of them. I had my second child in Ireland and the care was fantastic. It wasn’t a treadmill of shoving women in and out of the mat ward as quickly as possible. I had 1:1 midwife care throughout my 19 hour labour and constant fetal monitoring. When I was pushing there were two midwives. When things went wrong with DD they called the consultant immediately and made fast decisions to deliver my baby safely (with her umbilical cord wrapped twice around her neck). After birth, the women who were bottle feeding (everyone but me) were able to hand their babies over to the postnatal nurses whi sat in the ward feeding the babies so the mums could rest. The food was really healthy and decent portions like I had a salmon steak and vegetables for one meal. There were no visitors due to covid and when you pressed a bell, someone came. A physiotherapist came to talk to us about pelvic floor recovery. That’s all free for all women in Ireland. The NHS could do that here if they planned it properly and centred women. There were other aspects that weren’t perfect but delivery and postnatal care were really good compared to my UK birth.

AmandineChamallow · 30/06/2026 23:58

Darragon · 30/06/2026 23:55

Care. The people doing the job need to show their patients that they care. And take care of them. I had my second child in Ireland and the care was fantastic. It wasn’t a treadmill of shoving women in and out of the mat ward as quickly as possible. I had 1:1 midwife care throughout my 19 hour labour and constant fetal monitoring. When I was pushing there were two midwives. When things went wrong with DD they called the consultant immediately and made fast decisions to deliver my baby safely (with her umbilical cord wrapped twice around her neck). After birth, the women who were bottle feeding (everyone but me) were able to hand their babies over to the postnatal nurses whi sat in the ward feeding the babies so the mums could rest. The food was really healthy and decent portions like I had a salmon steak and vegetables for one meal. There were no visitors due to covid and when you pressed a bell, someone came. A physiotherapist came to talk to us about pelvic floor recovery. That’s all free for all women in Ireland. The NHS could do that here if they planned it properly and centred women. There were other aspects that weren’t perfect but delivery and postnatal care were really good compared to my UK birth.

Does sound better

BuffetTheDietSlayer · 01/07/2026 00:31

NHS needs to start treating mothers and pregnant women as actual human beings. Lab rats are treated better than many women on postnatal wards, it’s appalling.

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Meadowfinch · 01/07/2026 02:20

They can start by admitting that the drive for normal births at all costs was and is dangerous and damaging to women, rather than whitewashing the report.

Baroness Amos must be held accountable for her disingenuity. She should be ashamed of herself.

Bill Kirkup is worth twenty of her, for his honesty and basic professionalism.

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