The extreme shortfall of midwives changed the whole home birth facility system in the various hospitals across the United Kingdom. It’s been witnessed that over 20 trusts have already suspended home birth facilities in the last three months. Because of the shortage of workers, some institutions like Swansea Bay University Health Board, East Kent Hospitals, NHS Dumfries, and Galloway have already discontinued their homebirth services.
Suspended Home Due to Shortage of Workers
Some organizations have reopened their facilities after a short suspension. However, there is no guarantee that they can provide homebirth services on time when there is an extreme demand.
As per the survey conducted by the Royal College of Midwives, midwives are being forced out of the NHS under the apprehension that they would not perform the delivery safely.
The program director of the charity Birthrights, Marie Booker, said that the lack of staff among the maternity service providers is really an extreme situation.
Experiences Expecting Mom’s Go Through
Some women want to avoid hospitals because of the pandemic. And some want to stay within their comfort zone and experience the labor. Besides, those women who have already experienced unfortunate hospital incidents don’t want to revisit that place.
Expecting mom Rosie Gothard’s baby was due on the 5th of December. She went to a home birth facility as her nearby birth center wasn’t functional since last January. On the other hand, home birth providers Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells discontinued their services. They say they will resume their services soon, but it’s very confusing for an expecting mother.
From the patient advocacy group, Katherine Revell revealed that they received plenty of letters from various expecting mothers about the suspension of home birth facilities very late in their pregnancies. That was stressful for them.
Executive director of RCM Birte Harley Lam revealed that despite their best efforts, sometimes they had to discontinue the home birth facility frequently for some hours, which has some unavoidable impact on women about to give birth.
Also Read: Do you believe in myths, especially myths about pregnancy? Some myths may be fun, while others lead to confusion and misunderstanding.
