NHS drops limit to Caesarean births following Shrewsbury and Telford scandal
The announcement is part of plans to improve care for mothers and babies and the urgent need to reinstall the public's trust following widely reported maternity scandals at Shrewsbury and Telford and Nottingham hospital Trusts
Currently, maternity units are encouraged following advice from 2012 from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, to promote 'normal' births and limit the rate of Caesareans to around 20 per cent of births, mainly because of costs.
But, according to press reports, maternity staff have now been told to treat each case individually and to follow NICE guidelines that allow women to choose a planned Caesarean, even if it is not for medical reasons.
NHS England chief midwife Jacqueline Dunkley-Bent and clinical director for women's health Dr Matthew Joly said that they were 'concerned' with too strong a focus by hospital Trusts on hitting targets that may be inappropriate or unsafe and are therefore asking all maternity services to stop using total Caesarean section rates as a means of performance management.
Birth injury specialist Claire Horton said that in so many of her cases, delays in the performance of a Caesarean, lead to terrible consequences. Prioritising individual care needs over targets may help reduce the number of fatalities and babies born with catastrophic brain injury due to delayed delivery.
Last year, the Health and Social Care Committee reported that a 1,000 more babies every year would survive if England had safer maternity services. The Government then announced it was investing £2m into research to spot early signs of distress.
Meanwhile, the long awaited government-commissioned Ockenden Review of maternity standards at the Shrewsbury and Telford maternity hospital, investigating 1,862 cases, has been delayed.
Read about our birth injury cases.
We ask what constitutes a 'normal' birth?