That Someone should demand white only staff when delivering a baby

[pigletmania]

I was reading the local paper and it said that a lady demanded that white only staff deliver her baby at the local hospital min Milton Keynes, I am that someone could have that kind of attitude tbh, thought this kind of thing happened in the very distant past.

I am not a troll but a regular but just shock that someone can be so blatantly rascist.

I've had bad experiences with White-Irish Midwives..... Miserable Hogs !

Why do a job, if you're miserable in it ?

I had a lovely older Asian lady midwife.... to me it's the bedside manner.... when I am vunerable, ill or in Labour I want someone to talk to me and listen, I dont care what colour there are or their sex.... I think the bedside manner is generally lacking alot nowadays.

mumbo - wanting someone of your own culture may be understandable but it's not reasonable to expect it on the NHS.

You should, however, be able to expect that staff have a clue about your culture and not, for example, dish up meat to a Muslim without explaining it's halal, or only announcing appointments by calling names out if your records say you're deaf, or assume you're uncaring or stupid just because your English isn't good.

Like darts I'm deaf and can understand certain accents but not others. Ones I can't understand include Brummie, Mediterranean and Caribbean, whereas German or Queen's English is very easy. I've found the best way to explain is to say I can only understand people who speak like TV newsreaders. Others will just have to show me their computer screen or write stuff down. This actually worked very well with my midwives who were used to non-English-speakers and having to do lots of miming and working with interpreters.

Oddly, every single daytime midwife I met was white, about half Eastern European. All the nighttime ones were black except one Asian one (I saw about 20 of each). Apparently most night staff are from an agency. So does this mean white midwives are more likely to get NHS posts?

Betablocker - I think I made it quite clear that your statement "So who knows if this is cultural or just bad luck?" made it obvious that you're being more than a little disingenuous. As I said, asking that question is plain stupid.

Carmen, your question (within this context, a discussion about racism) seems to imply that you're asking (as devil's advocate - point taken!) whether it would be okay to request staff of a particular colour if you're paying for the service. I don't think I need to answer that question, do I?

To answer your question about religion specifically, I think the situation you've posed is actually more akin to the question of whether it's okay to request someone who speaks your language clearly enough for you to understand without struggling. It's not discrimination against someone else so much as choosing qualities that she feels will enable her to have the optimum experience of birth.

It is a fine point of distinction but still a significant one. Rejecting someone because you hate their skin colour (or you hate whatever you think their colour represents) is a world apart from selecting someone because you share a language or a culture. The former is about hatred, bigotry and discrimination, all of which (I would hope) would be missing in the latter. If, however, the person saying they wanted someone who shares their faith/ language were doing it as a way of discriminating against the others, then of course that would be as wrong as the racist's demands.

mumbo: "If a black woman wanted a black midwife, it would be seen as a reasonable request though, wouldn't it?" err, no, it definitely wouldn't!

Shame your midwife hadn't watched Mary Poppins, it might have taught her a thing or two about bedside manner!

I am ed

meangreen - I think if the clients you're referring to just wanted someone who shared an understanding with them, regardless of that person's colour, then that's okay. But say if an Albanian client had requested an Albanian social worker, and the only person available was a gypsy Albanian, who they rejected - then I think it's obvious that that's unacceptable.

As far as the language/ accent thing is concerned, IMO it is the responsibility of the speaker to do everything they can to develop good, clear spoken English/ whatever the language of that country is. Carmen - I feel for you having to face clients who sometimes fail to understand you, but (and I say this as an ex-language teacher) you can improve your ability in that language.

I think part of the requirement for medics living and working here is that they attend language/ pronunciation classes, since communication is such a vital part of their work. And, for the stroppy ones, that they attend classes in How To Relate Normally To Other Human Beings.

thumbwiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitch!!! Guess who?

StarlightMackenzie that's exactly the point I was trying to make

SPeedy! Gotcha.
BTW, there is the same issue in Australian hospitals - lots of staff from non-English speaking countries who are extremely difficult to understand - lots of closet racism too.

"I think part of the requirement for medics living and working here is that they attend language/ pronunciation classes, since communication is such a vital part of their work. And, for the stroppy ones, that they attend classes in How To Relate Normally To Other Human Beings."

love this! absolutely bloody right.

Speedy. It's not the language, it's the accent. I'm British in the US. I can do the accent but they'll think I'm taking the piss

Just shows there are still ignorant narrow minded people in the world.

Carmen - wow. Oh wow. It never occurred to me that unless you came from a remote Hebridean island populated by three people all related to each other, people from the US might have trouble understanding your English.

Reminds me of a great story about Brits in the USA: a friend knew someone who stopped a woman and her elderly daughter somewhere in the US to ask directions. After the younger woman had told the Brit which way to go, the elderly mother asked where she was from. "England," was the answer. "Wow," said the elderly woman to her daughter, "You see how clever they are, honey? They come over here and pick up the language just like that!"