Nottingham maternity services

[Puffincino]

You might have seen the news about poor patient care. Today the CQC report was announced. Earlier this week it was confirmed Donna Ockenden will run an independent inquiry into Maternity services. Women and babies have been harmed. Some have died.

I have just seen the internal staff email from the Chief Nurse. This is a direct quote:
"To provide timely and safe care to our pregnant people ".

Honestly am furious. If maternity services can't name women as women how can they provide our healthcare?

I share your fury Puffincino. All that time and money spent obliterating women from their services could be so much better spent on tackling the appalling state of maternity care and the disgraceful statistics about unequal care for Black and ethnic minority women.
But they won't as there's only one type of "inclusion" that matters currently and the safety of women and babies are not on that short list.

Annoys me too, I'd be happier if they just put 'the pregnant' while using their fingers to make scare quotes.

Breeders?

When will they get the memo that the majority, the vast majority of women FIND THIS LANGUAGE FUCKING OFFENSIVE.

It's NOT inclusive, it's EXCLUSIVE. FFS

If you have to you can say 'women and transmen'. There, done. Everyone included.

Baby production units

If you have to you can say 'women and transmen'. There, done. Everyone included.

Oh but the non binaries don't feel included!

If @theemperorhasnoclothes would like to communicate this thought to the chief nurse please go ahead.

As NHS staff I don't feel I can.

Ashamed of that, but it's not easy to speak up.

If it helps I am more than happy to speak up when agencies that don't employ me decide to obliterate women.

'Gestation bucket' I've heard used sarcastically on MN, I think, did make me laugh.

Frustrating as hell. The effort spent trying not to offend the trans minority when they arent even getting the basics of patient care right.

Exactly that @1000yellowdaisies . As I said at the beginning women and babies have been harmed. I feel so badly for local expectant parents who have no choice about their healthcare and have to trust a system they know has failed others.

But failure to name women as the patients tells us all that this hospital just hasn't understood the harm they have done.

The focus of this thread is not the lives lost or the injuries caused, or the devastation that has brought but the language used??

I honestly despair.

Sometimes the language can be so tortured by the time I've followed the trans, cis, nb, queer, etc. I've no idea wtf. This matters little in the affect I have on the world but in data gathering, for example, used to allocate resources, measure outcomes, it's a very shakey foundation to build anything on.

Dehumanising language and a failure to listen to women are large parts of the problem.

Worrying about "inclusive language" rather than the fucking disgraceful maternity stats for women of colour just sums it up.

Do you honestly not get the broader picture? Have you not grasped why we're so livid?
The Chief Nurse, even at this point of crisid, cannot bring themselves to say women.

Women and babies have died and they are still concerning themselves with crafting ridiculous, political emails. It's symptomatic of the whole system.
The NHS has forgotten that its priorities are patient care. For a maternity service that means WOMEN and babies and no one else and the Chief Nurse should not be afraid to say it.

The NHS will continue to fail if it cannot or will not name who it's serving in maternity. Which is WOMEN.

OP can you send the email somehow to a sympathetic MP, to Sajid Javid, or to the press.

Fuck's sake enough is enough. If women cannot be named then we can't be visible. Pretty fucking important for women to be front and centre of maternity care.

I'd go so far as to suggest that were the millions of £££ (including countless staff hours) spent on "inclusion" in the NHS redirected towards putting right the appalling state of maternity care which the now unmentionable group (ie women) have been shouting about for years, the NHS would have resources to tackle much of this.
It would mean dismantling the inclusion gravy train which some would complain about but women and parents and babies (and society) would benefit hugely.

@Foilball but language is our most direct form of communication. It’s what gets our needs met in an appropriate way. That’s why Mums listen to the different ways their babies cry.
And bad communication is what causes mistakes and failures in the NHS. Bad communication contributed to these injuries.

Bad communication has been going on for decades. I have lost count now of the number of scandals there have been and pious words by politicians about improvements and nothing gets better. It usually gets worse. But no, we have to have stupid talk about pregnant people in the pretence of being inclusive.

I have only ever spent a thankfully, very short period of time, in a Nottingham maternity ward.

If anyone is interested as to the shortness of time - I wasn't actually having a baby. long story but I never did get to the bottom of why that was the ward I ended up on such was the awfulness of their communication with patients and general contempt for women. Anyway moving on.

The respect for women (early 1990s) along with their lax communication seems to have inexplicably gone down since then which frankly surprises me because even then I thought it was as bad as it could ever get.

I'm sorry that was your experience @Boiledbeetle . I'd like to think you'd be better cared for now. So many of us are doing our best. I don't know what the inquiry will find but I really hope it leads to real and meaningful improvements not just warm words from the management team.