Monday, May 15, 2006

UK govt to advise home births best

Given the state of the NHS perhaps it shouldn't come as a surprise that the government is considering a new policy - official advice; stay at home for the birth of your baby. Perhaps the balance has tipped and home is indeed now the safer option. Even in NZ (seven years ago at least) the maternity ward wasn't as clean as my own home. I'll spare you the details.

The Independent on Sunday reported yesterday that Tony Blair's Labour Government is planning a "strategic shift" in childbirth policy away from hospital delivery and has commissioned research to support the case for home births. and "challenge the assumption that births should take place in hospitals".

The Secretary of State wants to "demedicalise" pregnancy


Where Britain goes, we usually follow. Given the huge push over the past 2-3 decades to shorten the maternity stay (even resorting to bribes), having no stay at all should look pretty appealing to struggling health boards.

4 comments:

sagenz said...

this is just plain wrong. I take your points about hygeine but this policy is literally throwing the baby out.

One of my children had complications right at the critical time after a previously unremarkable 2 births. The doctor was there with the expertise and equipment to immediately make the necessary decisions and carry out the necessary actions to result in a perfect child. The midwife is going to be perfectly adequate in 95% of cases. The difficulty is knowing which 95%.
To promote home birth to save money is just plain wrong.

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