Baby Loss Awareness Week
Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Peter Prinsley(2 weeks, 4 days ago)
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Dr Prinsley
I am very impressed to see both a former Health Secretary and the present Health Secretary here late in the evening for this debate, which is a sign of the subject’s importance.
Does the right hon. Gentleman feel that fundamental to the third problem he describes is the breakdown in relationships between the profession of midwifery and the profession of obstetrics, and that there is, in some instances, what appears to be a competition between these two crucial professions, and that one answer may be to find some way of getting the two professions closer together?
Sir Jeremy Hunt
I defer to the hon. Gentleman’s clinical experience, but I absolutely agree with him. He has hit the nail on the head.
Before I come on to my solutions, I want to say why I think this is still a problem. Very senior voices are still promoting “normal birth” ideology, including a former president of the Royal College of Midwives who told LBC in June:
“Doctors have taken over maternity, and they’re not doing it very well.”
It really is time to stop denying the problem and start solving it. Never again should the promotion of an ideology about a so-called preferable type of birth lead to a mother or baby being put at risk.