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You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/26/nhs-umblical-cord-cutting
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| Listen to mother: time to change NHS practice on umbilical cord-cutting | Listen to mother: time to change NHS practice on umbilical cord-cutting |
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| Sometimes, middle-class mothers are right. Sometimes, even the middle-class mothers who go on and on about the organic purees they make for little Sam, or Ella, are right. Sometimes, of course, they're wrong. The ones who followed the advice of a maverick doctor, and have now contributed to an epidemic that seems to have killed one person, and may kill more, are very clearly wrong. But sometimes, middle-class mothers, and even the kind of middle-class mothers who sit on beanbags and say they want childbirth to be a spiritual experience, are right. | Sometimes, middle-class mothers are right. Sometimes, even the middle-class mothers who go on and on about the organic purees they make for little Sam, or Ella, are right. Sometimes, of course, they're wrong. The ones who followed the advice of a maverick doctor, and have now contributed to an epidemic that seems to have killed one person, and may kill more, are very clearly wrong. But sometimes, middle-class mothers, and even the kind of middle-class mothers who sit on beanbags and say they want childbirth to be a spiritual experience, are right. |
| The National Childbirth Trust, which has seen quite a lot sperm turn into Sam, certainly seems to be right about umbilical cords. For years, it's been saying the cord that binds a baby to its mother shouldn't be cut immediately after birth. They say that if you do that, you make it more likely that the baby will get anaemia, which might affect the development of its brain. You don't have to keep it, or eat it, or pan-fry it with onions and garlic, but you should wait for it to stop pulsating before you chuck it out. You should wait, in fact, for two to five minutes, just as you'd wait for the perfect flat white. | |
| For 50 years, the NHS hasn't. But now quite a lot of people are telling it it's wrong. The Royal College of Midwives thinks it's wrong, and so does the World Health Organisation, and so do doctors who have published research in the BMJ. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists thinks it's wrong (unless the mother is bleeding dangerously) and now the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is thinking of changing its advice. If it does, then the number of toddlers who are anaemic, which is currently 10%, may well drop. That's better brains for Britney and Wayne, as well as for Ella and Sam. | For 50 years, the NHS hasn't. But now quite a lot of people are telling it it's wrong. The Royal College of Midwives thinks it's wrong, and so does the World Health Organisation, and so do doctors who have published research in the BMJ. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists thinks it's wrong (unless the mother is bleeding dangerously) and now the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence is thinking of changing its advice. If it does, then the number of toddlers who are anaemic, which is currently 10%, may well drop. That's better brains for Britney and Wayne, as well as for Ella and Sam. |
| The NCT has, in fact, been right quite a lot. It has, for example, been right to say that having a planned birth in a unit led by a midwife, rather than one led by an obstetrician, is likely to lead to less interference from the surgeon's knife. It has been right to say that giving birth in a pool is likely to lead to less pain than giving birth in a hospital bed. It hasn't, as far as I know, commissioned any studies on scented candles. | The NCT has, in fact, been right quite a lot. It has, for example, been right to say that having a planned birth in a unit led by a midwife, rather than one led by an obstetrician, is likely to lead to less interference from the surgeon's knife. It has been right to say that giving birth in a pool is likely to lead to less pain than giving birth in a hospital bed. It hasn't, as far as I know, commissioned any studies on scented candles. |
| But you don't need to be keen on scented candles to realise that when it comes to the business of giving birth, we're getting quite a lot wrong. Nobody ever said it would be a piece of (gluten-free artisan) cake. When God told Eve that he would "multiply" her "sorrow" in labour, he wasn't joking. "You're not prepared for the reality of childbirth," says psychotherapist Tina Radziszewicz. "It's an agonising bloodbath." But she was almost more upset by the midwife who told her that her nipples were "inadequate". Too many women are as traumatised by the experience of hospital – the feeling of being on a production line, the being left in agony, the often rude staff – as they are by the pain. | But you don't need to be keen on scented candles to realise that when it comes to the business of giving birth, we're getting quite a lot wrong. Nobody ever said it would be a piece of (gluten-free artisan) cake. When God told Eve that he would "multiply" her "sorrow" in labour, he wasn't joking. "You're not prepared for the reality of childbirth," says psychotherapist Tina Radziszewicz. "It's an agonising bloodbath." But she was almost more upset by the midwife who told her that her nipples were "inadequate". Too many women are as traumatised by the experience of hospital – the feeling of being on a production line, the being left in agony, the often rude staff – as they are by the pain. |
| No wonder quite a lot of mothers don't trust doctors. No wonder quite a lot of them end up ignoring very important medical advice about vaccinations. Mothers, like anyone who needs medical care – which is all of us at some point in our lives – need to feel that the people who are helping them are on their side. They need to feel that they have listened to the evidence, and that when the facts change (as Keynes apparently never quite said) they change their minds. It would also be nice if mothers were made to feel that having a baby wasn't a medical condition that needs to be treated but a painful, yes, but also joyful and actually quite important part of life. | No wonder quite a lot of mothers don't trust doctors. No wonder quite a lot of them end up ignoring very important medical advice about vaccinations. Mothers, like anyone who needs medical care – which is all of us at some point in our lives – need to feel that the people who are helping them are on their side. They need to feel that they have listened to the evidence, and that when the facts change (as Keynes apparently never quite said) they change their minds. It would also be nice if mothers were made to feel that having a baby wasn't a medical condition that needs to be treated but a painful, yes, but also joyful and actually quite important part of life. |