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Contrasting midwifery care

What a difference a (few) days make. I am back in England, and have travelled down to Yeovil, Somerset, in the south west of the country.

In the UK, midwives are respected and supported by Government regulations and legislation and also by the obstetricians and hospital administrations. I have yet to see the Yeovil unit, but I am here as the guest of the Royal College of Midwives local Branch and will be working with midwives from this hospital and others in the surrounding areas. I have been told that the midwives here work in teams, offer home births and that they have applied for (and received) extra money to equip the hospital with mats, birth balls and birth stools. I am looking forward to finding out more.

This is such a contrast to the conditions that prevail in Ireland. There, midwives struggle under the oppressive rules of the obstetricians, who have established a largely privatised system that is primarily of benefit to themselves. The midwifery students I worked with last week will never have the opportunity to develop the full range of their practice unless they travel overseas and work in health care systems that accept midwifery as central to safe birth outcomes. I hope that many will take the plunge and find their feet elsewhere.......

Posted by andrea at October 17, 2005 05:41 PM