A PETITION calling for community and home birth services to be reinstated at the remaining local birthing centres has been launched.
Due to a shortage of midwives, the Royal United Hospital (RUH) maternity service has suspended community births at the birthing centres in Chippenham and Frome. All home birth support has been suspended too. As a result, women who were hoping to give birth at home or in a birthing centre near their home, have to travel to Bath RUH.
The suspension of these services is another blow for expectant Westbury mothers, whose options for a community or home birth were reduced in 2020, when the maternity units in Trowbridge and Paulton were closed for births.
Community and home birth services have been suspended for the majority of 2022, and this month it was announced that a ‘difficult decision’ had been made to extend the suspension until at least the end of September.
“This is due to ongoing staff shortages and the need to prioritise the safety of women, birthing people and their babies,” said director of midwifery & deputy chief nurse, Sarah Merritt, in a public statement.
Women that had planned for a community or home birth have been given the option of a midwifery led birth at the RUH’s Birthing Centre.
The petition has been created by health campaigner Charlotte Pidgeon, who is involved with a local NCT (National Childbirth Trust) group and is also a director of Frome Baby Connections CIC; and at the time of going to press, nearly 400 people had signed it in support.
The petition says, “We understand the pressure the service is under but the impact of the closures on new families and babies is devastating and should not be underestimated. NHS Trusts have a duty of care to all labouring women and parents.”
Charlotte has also raised concern about the risk to pregnant women, who are having to travel to Bath to give birth. She said, “I am concerned that the system is not currently safe, the RUH’s birth statistics now include BBA – Born Before Arrival (of a midwife) – which shows the impact of these closures.
“Women are either choosing to give birth at home with no midwife present or they are giving birth before they can arrive in Bath. The pressure that the ambulance service is under makes this even more risky if an emergency response was required.
“We fully support women choosing to give birth how and where they want, but no one should feel forced into a decision which could put them at risk.
“Even in the Bath birthing centre, staff are critically overstretched and this cannot be a safe or supportive environment to birth in. We want to ensure that all the families affected can make their voices heard and that in future planning the Trust can ensure this never happens again.”
About why local birth centres are important, Charlotte says that families want to be cared for close to home by midwives familiar to them.
Antenatal, day assessment and postnatal care is still available from Chippenham and Frome, as well the maternity units in Paulton and Trowbridge.
To sign the petition, visit the website: www.change.org/p/reinstate-community-and-home-births-as-part-of-ruh-maternity-services
