Report raises concerns over frequency of medical interventions during childbirth

The health service needs to reduce the “medicalisation” of childbirth in Ireland, according to authors of the report on the National Survey on Birth in Ireland.Launched at University of Limerick, those attending heard that while it is accepted medical interventions can be lifesaving, the main issue of concern is “how often they are used and the lack of options being offered to women”.One of the authors, Pam Davis of the Birth Rights Alliance Ireland, pointed to evidence from the survey of a “lack of individualised care” and “a lack of evidenced-based backing” behind decisions being made.She referenced internal examinations, which she said were being undertaken based on “outdated” research from the 1950s. She also pointed out that internal investigations are “not risk-free”, and can lead to - among other things - the spread of infection as well as cause pain.As part of a section of the report which covered what those attending the launch heard amounts to the “over-medicalisation” of maternity services, attention was also drawn to the high proportion of women who have a C-section.Of the survey of 3,824 women who gave birth between 2018 and 2023, a little over 33% of women who gave birth said they had had one. This is despite, as the launch heard, the World Health Organisation recommending that C-section rates should not be higher than between 10% and 15% of births in health services in any given year.The launch heard a call for the National Maternity Strategy to be updated to reflect more choice and different care pathways for women. There was also a call for standalone birth centres, midwifery-led units, antenatal and postnatal hubs and better information from GPs about options around maternity care.The survey, which is a collaboration between the Birth Rights Alliance Ireland and the Participatory Health Research Unit in the University of Limerick’s School of Medicine, noted that almost half of mothers surveyed in the study did not realise consent was needed before medics could carry out internal examinations of them.Decision-making Rachael Birmingham, also of the Birth Rights Alliance Ireland, said some 25% of those who completed the University of Limerick-led survey and had had either a C-section or an instrument-assisted birth stated they were not provided with enough information about both procedures.When asked if they were involved in the decision about what kind of birth to have - spontaneous vaginal birth, instrumental birth, or C-section - she said that just over half said they were fully involved.That 53% cohort stated they were asked “every step of the way” what they wanted and that their decisions were accepted without question.However, issues arose with the remaining 47% of those women who referenced varying degrees of either consent or information being provided to them in advance of procedures.A call was also made at the launch for the health service to acknowledge a problem of obstetric violence exists in Irish hospitals at Monday’s launch of the report on the National Survey on Birth in Ireland.Among the key findings in the report are issues around women who were neither asked for or who gave their consent for medical procedures to be carried out. Health researcher Dr Susann Huschke, of University of Limerick’s School of Medicine, said: “The first thing the health service needs to do is acknowledge there is a problem.”

View Original Article