Live webchat with Labour shadow health secretary Andy Burnham on our Miscarriage Care campaign: WEDNESDAY 1.45pm

[RowanMumsnet]

We're pleased to announce that Andy Burnham, MP for Leigh and Labour's shadow health secretary, will be joining us for a webchat on Wednesday at 1.45pm to talk about Labour's response to our Miscarriage Care campaign.

Andy has been MP for Leigh since 2001, and has been Labour's health shadow for four years after standing in the 2010 leadership election. In government, he worked in the Home Office and was Secretary of State for Health. He's also known for his work on the campaign to find out the truth about what happened at Hillsborough.

As you may know, we're asking Andy (along with the Conservative and LibDem health ministers) to include a commitment to better miscarriage care in the manifestos for the 2015 election. Do check out our campaign and our video - and please join us on Wednesday at 1.45pm. If you can't be there at the time, please post up your questions here in advance.

Thanks
MNHQ

[RaisinGirls]

Andy, thank-you for taking the time to listen and answer our questions. I had a MMC at 13 weeks last April after three years of trying to conceive. It was the single most devastating moment of my life to be told my baby had died. I had excellent care at the Whittington, where all staff behaved with such compassion - both in the EPU and A and E where I ended up due to heavy bleeding when I began naturally miscarrying ( I found out I had lost my baby on the Friday and was due to have an ERPC) on the Monday.

I am very lucky to now have an 8 week old baby girl, who I am feeding whilst typing this. However, I was a nervous wreck through the pregnancy given my previous loss, and I do feel women pregnant after a MC should have access to reassurance care - both through extra scans and perhaps a midwife who specialises in caring for women pregnant after a MC. I was lucky enough to be able to afford private reassurance scans - but not everyone is.

Also, can you use your position to highlight how awful is the name EPRC -evacuation of retained products of conception. It was my baby inside me, it looked like a baby on the scan and when I miscarried - it was not retained products. That name hurt me so much at the time and still does.

Ps - I'm a fellow evertonian - what do you think our position will be at the end of next season

[Blondieminx]

Andy, thanks for coming to Mumsnet again (I took part in the 2009 webchat).

I came on to say the same as Juggling so instead I will ask: how, specifically, do Labour intend to improve the standard of care offered to women throughout pregnancy?

In particular do you agree that:

• there should be a separate entrance/waiting area for women attending EPU's (in other words they should not have to see/wait with heavily pg women);
  
• women in labour should have 1:1 care to prevent maternal and infant mortality, and to get early intervention for difficult births;
  
• women on wards should not be subject to direct selling or theft of their personal data; and
  
• non-clinical staff working on such wards should also be given regular ongoing training in speaking to patients compassionately?

[Catlover2014]

Hi Andy,

Thank you for being on here and for listening to women who are so affected by this issue. Shame the current government isn't more willing to listen!

I have a few questions which follow my experience of reoccurring miscarriage and infertility.

1. Why is there such a post code lottery on access to fertility treatment? Where I live is woeful!
   

1. Why do some CCGs (including mine) remove IVF / IUI funding for 3 years when you have miscarried? My conceiving followed a drugs I was recommended to take while on the wait for my one NHS IVF round and I have now lost that funding. Very unfair, especially as I paid privately for the drugs.
   

1. Why are hospitals still using the ERPC term even though it is a lack of respect for the life lost and the parents / family of that baby?
   

1. Shouldn't the no tests before 3 miscarriages be made more flexible according to factors like general health, age and history of infertility?
   

1. Is there no way we can afford to offer extra support and reassurance scans for women who have miscarried in the past? If I ever conceive again I will have to go into debt to pay for scans as I can't bear another missed miscarriage at my 12 week scan.
   

1. Do you think women with infertility / miscarriage should be offered counseling on the nhs? I'm paying private due to there being a six month wait for just 6 sessions on the nhs.
   

Thank you again for listening. I hope this campaign will help women going through the pain and heartache of miscarriage and infertility!

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi everyone. Here with Andy. He's just settling in and getting ready to answer your questions. Thanks so much to everyone who as already posted - please do keep the questions coming.

[AndyBurnhamMP]

Afternoon everyone. Thanks for having me on. This has been a brilliant campaign by Mumsnet and I look forward to discussing it with you. It is impossible not to be moved by some of your personal stories - thanks for sharing them. I'll try and answer as many of your Qs as poss. So let's get started.

[squizita]

Many GPs are woefully ignorant about miscarriage (for example thinking early losses are 'chemical pregnancies' or blaming age in women under 35 which is ridiculous). This means the NHS right to testing after 3 losses is often ignored because the GP knows no better.
As APS, one of the most common causes of repeat MC, can also cause strokes and thrombosis (it is usually diagnosed after miscarriage) - this is not only a heartbreaking but a dangerous matter.

What can be done to ensure GPs understand when testing should occur?

[AndyBurnhamMP]

@woeface

Hello Andy. I'm really impressed that you're taking the time to come on and talk about this issue. Until now it's been a 'silent' one - but it's so important to so many of us: hard to express how unnecessarily devastating poor care can be.

I'd be even more impressed if you would commit Labour to putting better miscarriage care in their manifesto, and I don't think I'd be alone.

You are absolutely right - this issue has been out-of-sight for too long. No-one supports the NHS more than me but I know that this is an area where it has fallen well short. We can do much better. That's why I support Mumsnet's campaign and can announce today that Labour will include a commitment to improving miscarriage care in our 2015 Manifesto.

[TheStandard]

woooooop! Thanks Andy

One down, two to go

[JustineMumsnet]

@AndyBurnhamMP

This issue has been out-of-sight for too long. No-one supports the NHS more than me but I know that this is an area where it has fallen well short. We can do much better. That's why I support Mumsnet's campaign and can announce today that Labour will include a commitment to improving miscarriage care in our 2015 Manifesto.

Fabulous news. Thank you.

[burgesshillmama]

Thank you for joining this discussion today Andy. Please can you share with us what Labour propose to do to improve miscarriage care.

[AndyBurnhamMP]

@NiceBlanket

Hello Andy, thankyou very much for doing this. Really hoping you'll be able to make a commitment on this issue.

I get that some bits of the MN code may require money and obviously that's not something the NHS is going to have loads of in the next few years.

But so much of it could be achieved without big spending: getting hospitals to tell GP commissioning groups when a woman has miscarried so that she doesn't get a snippy phone call from a community midwife about 'missing' an appointment - WHY does this still happen? FGS it can't be rocket science surely?

You're right - It's not just about money but the way we do things. One of the problems with the NHS is sometimes it is too much like a production line. It sees the immediate problem but not the person behind it. And professionals are sometimes working in silos leaving people frustrated and upset when they have to re-tell their story time and time again.

[woeface]

Oh that's FANTASTIC news! Wow.
Can you just explain for a political novice what the timescale of this will be - and also how the success of the commitment will be measured?

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Wow, a commitment in your very first answer. I'm very impressed Andy Burnham. Quite right too mind you

[NiceBlanket]

Brillaint.

You're right about silos. Woudl be interested to see what you think can be done about that on the ground? It's not really a job for Whitehall but someone needs to take it in hand.

[Wereweatherwool]

Brilliant stuff! Thank you

[AndyBurnhamMP]

@smilingthroughgrittedteeth

My question is how will you ensure, frontline a&e staff get the training needed to deal with women suffering a miscarriage in a sympathetic and kind way and that procedures dictate that a scan is done so that no other women has to be given hope only to discover they were actually miscarrying.

and what follow up care do you plan on offering women because counselling is not readily available and I wasnt offered a follow up scan I was told to wait a week and do a pregnancy test to check my hormone levels had dropped, I cant even begin to describe the heartache seeing a negative pregnancy test caused me.

I was sorry to hear about your own experience - it shows why things desperately need to change. On training, we have already said that the training of all health professionals should be broader and consider a 'whole person' approach. You are absoutely right to highlight the need for better access to counselling. At present, people only have rights to medication under NHS constitution. We want to broaden that to include a right to counselling or therapy.

[NiceBlanket]

A right to counselling or therapy on the NHS sounds like a great idea. Expensive upfront but surely money saving in the long run

[AndyBurnhamMP]

@burgesshillmama

Thank you for joining this discussion today Andy. Please can you share with us what Labour propose to do to improve miscarriage care.

To be honest, it's an overdue discussion that we all should have been having and I'm glad to be able to put that right. On our precise plans, we endorse the five points of the code of care and would work to implement them. It goes with the grain of our policy of 'Whole Person Care' which is about moving the NHS from a patient-centred to a person-centred service. There is a world of difference between those two things.

[Crumblemum]

Fantastic. So good to see a politician listening to patients and taking action. Thank you Andy. I know many people on Mumsnet and in real-life who have been waiting for someone to show leadership on this issue.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

A right to counselling within the NHS would be an amazing thing. Following a recent bereavement I sought counseling from Cruse and was told there is a 6 month waiting list. I think this is quite common from other sources of support too. 6 months is too long to wait if you need to talk to someone about what you're going through

[pinkballoon19]

Wow - a manifesto commitment, fantastic. That is brilliant news, thank you so much Andy Burnham

[Yiska]

Excellent news! Thank you it is much appreciated

[AndyBurnhamMP]

@NiceBlanket

A right to counselling or therapy on the NHS sounds like a great idea. Expensive upfront but surely money saving in the long run

You are right. The number of prescriptions for anti-depressants has increased exponentially in the last decade. We can't go on dishing them out like that. I am interested in the idea of 'social prescribing', where GPs can get people access to services like bereavement or relationship counselling from the very start. As you say, this will save money but, much more importantly, put people back in control of their lives.

[JustOneCube]

Great to see manifesto commitment - it's such an important issue. Thank you, Andy

[squizita]

Smiling and Andy although they were unsympathetic it is SO IMPORTANT we women ARE told to test after 2 weeks. If HCG does not fall it can indicate some of the placenta is still there (infection risk) or a partial molar or molar pregnancy occurred (these carry a significant cancer risk and are a pre-cancerous state).
I was NOT told to test out of "kindness" ... 4 weeks later I was in oncology being briefed about the possibility of chemo.

Also, with regards to giving hope: staff MUST be clear that it's not just a very early pregnancy before confirmation of MC occurs. This has happened to a friend who, after a bleed and MC confirmed, drank a bottle of wine in her sorrow and went back to eating liver, playing contact sports etc'. They then discovered it was not a loss. Thankfully the baby is fine.
So although being left in limbo is incredibly hard, it isn't always a good idea to get everything 'answered' too quickly.