Woman and Birth’s Post

how vital important is to nurture trust as health care professionals towards women and birthing people

NEW PAPER - ‘Perinatal women’s views and experiences of discussing suicide in maternity care settings: A qualitative study’. This is the second of two papers from an interview study with perinatal women* which looks at their views regarding the barriers and facilitators for identifying and discussing suicidal thoughts and/or behaviours in maternity care contexts. Please read & share this important research 🙏🏻 #perinatalmentalhealth #suicideresearch #pregnant #postnatal #maternalmhmatters https://lnkd.in/ePiP57RA *The authors recognise that not all birthing people identify as being a ‘woman’ or 'mother' or 'female' (e.g.,). Although these terms have been used throughout this paper, we aim to include any birthing person.

Interesting to review the findings from the report card on perinatal screening for Victoria published yesterday and in today’s The Age Newspaper. The report details disappointing results surrounding perinatal mental health screening during pregnancy and postnatally (for example only one in two people are screened after giving birth and one in three during pregnancy).    It’s such a shame that the report is so outdated at the time of its release as Victoria has been the lead state in adopting the iCOPE digital screening with 67,686 screens completed as of the end of February 2024.   This is more than a five-fold increase since the reporting period.    The recommendations also highlight the importance of iCOPE facilitating screening in 25 languages and adapted version for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men and women.   Furthermore COPE accredited training programs, free resources for consumers and professionals and the establishment of appropriate and integrated referral pathways are addressing many of these recommendations outlined in the report.    COPE looks forward to working with the Victorian government to continue to ensure the implementation of best practice. To review report summary - https://lnkd.in/gxHuScJp

According to the MiROG study, 13% of maternity services currently provide informational leaflets on birth choices that fall outside standard guidelines. This highlights an important area of need identified by MNSI investigations, which emphasise the value of accessible resources for those considering such birth plans. Ensuring that individuals seeking care outside of national or local have access to clear, supportive, and evidence-based information is essential for empowering informed decision-making. By expanding resources and guidance on alternative options, the maternity workforce can play a crucial role in supporting safe and individualised care pathways for all birthing individuals.

Some really important reading.

Yesterday the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Birth Trauma launched a new inquiry report. The APPG identified the following common themes: - Failure to listen; - Lack of informed consent; - Poor communication; - Lack of pain relief; - Lack of kindness; - Breastfeeding problems; - Poor postnatal care; - The impact of Covid; and - Complaints and medical negligence. The APPG have made a set of recommendations that aim to address the problems they identified and "work towards a maternity system that is woman-centred and where poor care is the exception rather than the rule". These recommendations are lengthy, with the key focus being on: training and retention of staff; outlining birth options and risks; and postnatal support and services including for mental health for both women and partners. Inevitably, the report won't reflect everyone's birth experience nor the approach of so many NHS staff delivering excellent antenatal, delivery and postnatal services whose dedication, kindness and support will have been significant to many women and their partners. Nevertheless, those of us who have handled claims in this area will recognise the issues raised in the report and understand that there are always lessons which can be learned and improvements which can be made. Whilst the focus of the report is on NHS maternity services, it is an important read for everyone involved in the delivery of healthcare services, clinical governance and/or those handling medical malpractice claims as many of the above themes will be applicable to other services across the NHS and independent healthcare sectors.

This week the public inquiry into birth trauma launched their report. It describes a ‘pattern of poor maternity care across the country’ underpinned by a ‘system in which overwork and understaffing was endemic.’ The report highlights that people from marginalised and minoritised ethnic groups have poorer experiences of care. It sheds light on many of the challenges the mamas we support face every day, such as: 🟠Many parents cannot afford to travel to hospital or their GP practice to attend antenatal appointments. 🟠A lack of access to interpreters in NHS services. 🟠A need for greater awareness of diverse cultural practices. 🟠Explicit racism from some caregivers. 🟠A lack of understanding that survivors of sexual abuse often find vaginal examinations, routinely performed during labor, intensely traumatic. 🟠An absence of individual-focused, compassionate care to support mamas who face complex and intersecting disadvantages. Despite the need for a widespread overhaul of the UK’s maternity services and more investment from the government, which this report exposes, we remain hopeful that change is possible. We join Naomi Delap, director of Birth Companions who gave evidence to the inquiry, in calling for a system in which “everybody has an understanding of trauma, that everybody is compassionate and kind, that there is continuity of information-sharing so that people don’t have to keep on reiterating their trauma, telling their stories over and over again to different people.” We echo the need for care with an “individualised approach, individualised care plans, meaningful consent.” Project MAMA’s community of midwives and doulas, who are fiercely passionate about maternal rights and perinatal care, give us faith that a more compassionate, holistic, person-focused system is possible. #birthtraumareport

We’re back for the second round of the workshop - Does your birth choices service widen the health equity gap? Frequent comments on the BICS forum (below) inspired the development of this workshop, a collaboration between Whittington Health NHS Trust and MNSI. 💬 Advanced directive for needle phobia 💬 Who is the lead professional in high-risk pregnancy and woman/birthing person declines to see an obstetrician? 💬 18 yr old wanting sterilisation at child birth (CB) 💬 Twin homebirth request 💬 Maternal assisted CB We presented our review which explored the reasons why care was planned outside of guidance. We identified multiple reasons influencing a mother's / birthing women's choice to plan their care outside of guidance. These included: - previous birth trauma - fear of medicalised birth - loss of a sense of control - birth anxiety The two most common reasons for care outside of guidance were: 1️⃣Delaying or declining an induction of labour when It was recommended 2️⃣Requests for vaginal birth at home after a previous caesarean birth 🖼️ See our BICS poster to explore more on Birthing outside of guidance https://lnkd.in/eXMMBsUS #BICS24

RESPECTFUL MATERNITY CARE AND WOMEN'S MENTAL HEALTH DURING PREGNANCY AND AFTER CHILDBIRTH: THE MISPOD STUDY IN GUINEA MISPOD is a study that explores the independent contribution or the share of mistreatment inflicted on women during childbirth in health facilities to the occurrence of depression in these women in the period following childbirth up to 42 days (postpartum period) in Conakry. To answer the research questions raised by the topic, this study combines a longitudinal quantitative method and a qualitative method for data collection. The quantitative part has been completed, and the initial analyses already show that the prevalence of symptoms suggestive of depression during pregnancy among the 417 study participants was 34.05%. This means that one in three women in our sample who sought antenatal care in their third trimester in health facilities in Conakry had symptoms suggestive of depression during pregnancy. While the quantitative data analyses continue, we are beginning the qualitative data collection for which the interviewers were trained at the Centre National de Formation et de Recherche en Santé Rurale de Maferinyah from 17 to 19 July 2024 (see the image below). The study is being carried out thanks to the collaboration between the Centre National de Formation et de Recherche en Santé Rurale de Maferinyah, the CEA -PCMT and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp. It is noteworthy that this important study is taking place in a context where data on women's mental health during pregnancy and after childbirth (the perinatal period) are insufficient or non-existent in Guinea to inform the design of targeted interventions to address this public health issue. The research team will update you on the results of this study progressively. Anteneh Asefa, Lenka Beňová PhD, Grace Marie V. Ku, MD, MPH, FPAFP, PhD, Delamou Alexandre, Abdoul Habib BEAVOGUI #GRIPP #KnowledgeTranslation #ResearchCommunication Association des Journalistes Scientifiques de Guinée L'Ordre National des médecins de Guinée

What are Postpartum and Perinatal OCD? • OCD that occurs immediately after childbirth is called postpartum OCD. • OCD that occurs during pregnancy is called perinatal OCD. • Research shows that women who are pregnant, or who have recently given birth, are at an increased risk of developing OCD symptoms. If they already have OCD, the obsessions and compulsions may worsen during this time. Read more about Postpartum and Perinatal OCD in this fact sheet by International OCD Foundation https://lnkd.in/gYUhGyt7 We hope you'll join us as we build the first user-driven female-specific OCD research database to help backfill decades of missing data. You can sign up for the OCD App Waitlist here:https://lnkd.in/dvycfYAq