More than 90 percent of pregnant women not given choice of birth location

October 26, 2009 by Shawn Douglas  
Filed under: News, Pregnancy

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Pregnant women are still not offered choices according to a recent NCT report, but the Department of Health disputes the findings.

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) recently released a report stating that only 4.2 percent of pregnant women were given all the available options for their upcoming birth.

In 2007, the government issued a report titled “Maternity Matters” that outlined a plan to allow by 2009 all women a choice among three options of giving birth at home with a midwife, at a local midwifery facility, or at a hospital.

“Offering choice over where and how to give birth will lead to more flexible, responsive and accessible maternity services … [and] improve the safety, quality and family friendliness of maternity services,” said then Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt in 2007.

Yet the NCT contests that the data they analyzed shows that there’s much more work to be done to ensure that the promised options become a reality.

“We are shocked by how far behind the government is in fulfilling its promise,” said Belinda Phipps, the NCT’s chief executive, to The Guardian.

“It is extremely disappointing that for every 10 pregnant women, nine are not able to choose where they want to give birth. We know that across the UK, government policies support women with choice. However, in reality this is not even close to being delivered yet.”

“We want the governments to act now. Although in a few cases more investment in maternity services will be needed, with a simple re-thinking of the way their maternity services are delivered, every trust and board can ensure choice is available to all women.”

‘”We know there are some financial policy obstacles hindering the achievement of choice; the NHS could make much faster progress if it corrected these,” added Phipps.

However, the Department of Health contests that the way NCT analyzed the data was improper leading to severely skewed results.

“A Healthcare Commission review of maternity services in England published in 2008 used the same 2007 data and found that 81% of women said they did have a choice of place of birth,” said Dr Sheila Shribman, the National Clinical Director for Children, Young People and Maternity Services.

“We reject the findings of this [NCT] report, which uses flawed methodology and out-of-date data. The NCT defines choice based on the percentage of home births and the distance of maternity units in some areas of the country. Both of these definitions are unrealistic and ignore the most important evidence—whether a pregnant woman was actually offered choice or not.”

The Department of Health’s Christine Beasley and David Flory expressed to head NHS officers that they think the choices should be fully in place by the end of 2009. “There is an expectation that the specific commitments outlined in Maternity Matters will have been met by the end of December 2009—commitments around continuity of care and access to maternity care, types of antenatal and postnatal care, and place of birth.”

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