Leicester teen birth video: shocking

"We know this film is hard-hitting but so are the numbers of under-18s getting pregnant in Leicester,' Tim Rideout, chief executive of NHS Leicester City, told Metro UK. "Nearly half the city's wards are classed as teen pregnancy 'hotspots'." Rideout says that posters and leaflets have been ineffective and it was hoped that the video would get the message across.


What do you think?

Epidurals on the way out in the UK

In Australia, it is no secret that medicalised birth is increasingly becoming the norm. With a greater push for less intervention and more one-to-one care, maternity reform is a red hot issue on the national agenda. Nevertheless, while the prospect of having wholly funded home births and more accessible birth centres throughout the country is exciting, should less intervention mean no intervention?

In the UK, doctors and patients are struggling over new regulations surrounding the use of epidurals during birth. As new guidelines have characterised the use of epidurals and caesareans as 'unnatural' in a bid to reduce interventions by up to 40%. The goal of the new guidelines is to ensure that more women are having 'normal' or 'traditional' birth. Obstetricians, however, have problems with this.

Kim Hinshaw, a consultant obstetrician at Sunderland Royal Hospital, said: ‘I have major concerns with this. I don’t think we will ever reach a figure of 60% normal delivery using this definition. For example, in Sunderland we have an epidural rate in first labours of 60%.

‘This definition implies that if you ask for an epidural for pain relief, but go on and deliver normally after a six-hour labour, your birth was not ‘normal’. That is a disgrace.’

And Professor James Walker, a consultant obstetrician at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust added: ‘This is a very rigid definition of what normal birth should be. Epidurals should not be done without reason; they should be kept to a minimum. There are some women, however, who require an epidural because they cannot cope with the pain in any other way.’

I have to agree. While I am fully in favour of supporting national guidelines that seek to minimise the unnecessary interventions, at the same time, I bristle at the thought of women giving birth in pain and not being allowed to have relief if they ask for it.

Would you be happy with this model of care in your own country?

Source: http://tinyurl.com/ccz8vh

Elective caesars on the way out in the UK

It is no secret that caesarean rates are rising rapidly in the western world (currently 23% in Britain). In a bold move, the NHS (UK) has barred women from routinely having elective caesars because they are too expensive and strain the national health care budget. In Greater Manchester, elective caesars are being limited to women that can demonstrate specific health problems.

Some obstetricians, however, are firmly against the move. Dr Christoph Lees, an obstetrician and gynaecologist at Addenbrooke’s hospital in Cambridge, said: “I strongly disagree with this prescriptive condition setting. Sometimes well-informed women, often older and very unlikely to have further children, do request caesarean sections and it is unreasonable to refuse if they are fully informed.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. Although the rates of caesareans are ridiculously out of control at present, is it productive to limit women's choices even further? Sure, I would never choose to have a caesarean unless medically necessary but what's right for me isn't necessarily the right choice for everyone else.

What do we think? Is this something that should be implemented in the US, Canada and Australia?

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article5734096.ece