Welcome to an exciting season of change in childbirth. It started with the publication of our new resource, Midwifery and Human Rights: A Practitioner's Guide. Birthrights has worked alongside the British Institute of Human Rights, the Royal College of Midwives and a dedicated group of practising midwives, so that health care professionals have a practical resource they can consult at any time they feel a woman’s human rights hang in the balance.We will be following up the Guide with an online training module developed in collaboration with the RCM. 

The Guide is timely. Whist the roots of choice and personalised care have been watered by the Better Births report,  the soil around them grows poorer. NHS Trusts are having to make hard choices, and women and the healthcare professionals that look after them, are left to negotiate the gap between rhetoric and reality.

This autumn there will be an unprecedented focus on human rights in childbirth.  On the 15th September Bournemouth University published its interim report on the experience of disabled women in maternity care. This research, commissioned by Birthrights, showed that some disabled women had a far from satisfactory experience. The full report will be published in January.

On the same day  the launch of Rebecca Schiller's Why Human Rights in Childbirth Matter took place and we are thrilled that over 70 bookclubs are taking part in our #newchapter bookclub campaign to support our work and raise our profile– not only here in the UK but around the world.

In addition our three, free, Dignity in Childbirth workshops will be held in Coventry, Nottingham and London in October and November. And we are putting the finishing touches to our own training films for healthcare professionals which we look forward to making available in the next month.

The Practitioners Guide, our online training and our workshops will help us protect more women in pregnancy and childbirth but there’s still much to do. If you would like to support our work,  join our #newchapter campaign this autumn and become one of our monthly supporters.

 

Midwifery and Human Rights: A Practitioner's Guide Published



This practical and accessible guide to human rights, is now available to midwives and healthcare practitioners. The guide was developed by Birthrights, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and the British Institute of Human Rights to help midwives navigate everyday situations they encounter in their working lives. As well as covering key human rights, the guide works through real life scenarios using decision-making flow charts, giving midwives a practical tool to protect women's human rights in childbirth.

Birthrights CEO, Rebecca Schiller adds,“from the advice Birthrights provide to pregnant women and their families and the training we undertake with midwives and doctors it's clear that women's human rights are at stake in their maternity care and that there's a lack of awareness of these issues amongst healthcare professionals. We were delighted to work with BIHR and RCM on this practitioner's guide as part of our programme of training and resources on lawful maternity care.”

In addition to the digital version, we will be taking physical copies of the Guide along to all events we are attending or organising this autumn. 

Its time for a #newchapter
   

On 15^th September Rebecca Schiller's book Why Human Rights in Childbirth Matter was published. At the launch (above), RCM CEO Cathy Warwick, said the book was essential reading for all midwives, and reviewers have called it "an important book, skilfully tackling complex and emotive global issues with ease."

The countdown has begun to our #newchapter week of bookclubs, most of which will take place 17-21st October (although anytime is fine). We now have over 70 bookclubs planned around the UK and overseas and each will help us to tell the world why human rights in childbirth matter. It's not too late to join us and help put these important issues in the spotlight and raise funds to support our work.
 
Register your interest in being a #newchapter book club host on our website. We will send you all the information you need to plan your event as well as a beautiful bookmark for every book clubber.

Maternity Care For Women with a Physical Disability Not Meeting Their Needs

This was the conclusion of the interim report of research into disabled women's experience of maternity care, commissioned by Birthrights and carried out by Bournemouth University. Although overall most women were satisfied with their care, the report found that only 19% of women thought that reasonable adjustments or accommodations had been made for them. Some found birth rooms, postnatal wards and their maternity notes and scans “completely inaccessible”,  while a quarter of women reported that they felt they were treated less favourably because of their disability. Most strikingly, more than half (56%) felt that health care providers did not have appropriate attitudes to disability.

This has long been a concern of Birthrights since our 2013 Dignity Survey suggested that the needs to woman with a disability were not being met, and we will be working hard to address this issue. 


Find Birthrights at:

1st October - Women's Voices conference, London, Rebecca Schiller speaking
6th October - Growing Families conference, Manchester - Birthrights are proud to be a sponsor and will have a stand
18-22nd October - B!rth Festival, Manchester - Birthrights will be exhibiting.
19th October - Human Rights in Childbirth, European Summit - Elizabeth Prochaska and Rebecca Schiller speaking
3rd November - Shaping the Future of Maternity Care, Lessons from Local Areas on implementing the national review - Birthrights is proud to be an official supporter. Find out more and book here
12th November - IMUK conference - Elizabeth Prochaska chairing
2nd/3rd December - RCM/European Midwives Association conference, London - Elizabeth Prochaska speaking on 3rd