When the UK entered lockdown in March 2020 in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus, I’m not sure any of us expected it to continue for quite as long as it did. As the country shut down – taking businesses, schools, universities and much more with it – one of the major concerns was the impact on healthcare. Appointments, surgeries and scans were pushed back for many who weren’t considered ‘urgent’ in order to make way for treating those feeling the severe effects of the virus.
“This is a stark reminder that pregnant women are all-too-often taken for granted; routinely seen as nothing more than a baby-carrying vessel.”
However, one process that couldn’t be paused was maternity. Women who were pregnant continued to attend appointments with adjustments made to accommodate the pandemic. One major change to their routines was the exclusion of partners from appointments and significant periods of childbirth. This left women feeling vulnerable during an often life-changing time in their lives.
Eventually, as the first wave eased, the government adjusted its advice stating it would allow partners to attend scans, appointments and childbirth but, was this too little too late? Recent evidence has exposed that some NHS trusts have been continuing to ban partners from appointments in direct opposition to the new advice, even after this has been proved to be detrimental for those who are pregnant.
This is a stark reminder that pregnant women are all-too-often taken for granted; routinely seen as nothing more than a baby-carrying vessel. I think it is crucial that pregnant women are restored the dignity and respect they are so often lacking. In the first lockdown, government advice failed them. And now, nearly a year on, those who are pregnant are still finding themselves fighting for the most basic of allowances.
“Trusts who are ignoring the updated government advice are putting these pregnant women through unnecessary stress, on top of an already stressful experience.”
The most recent government advice for hospitals states “that a woman should have access to support from a person of her choosing at all stages of her maternity journey” and demands that all trusts must aim to facilitate this as soon as possible.
In spite of this, evidence shows that women are still being told not to bring partners into scans and appointments with them. Birthrights, a charity dedicated to preserving women’s rights during their pregnancy and proliferators of the #ButNotMaternity hashtag, have been lobbying hospitals directly to get answers.
Birthrights stress that “familiar support is a key component of safe and personalised maternity care,” and trusts who are ignoring the updated government advice are putting these pregnant women through unnecessary stress, on top of an already stressful experience.
Pregnant Then Screwed, another charity focussing on maternity discrimination, wrote an open letter to the CEO of the NHS, Simon Stevens, revealing the damning results of their surveys. In their survey of 15,000 pregnant women and new mothers, they uncovered that 90% of pregnant women “say hospital restrictions are having a negative impact on their mental health” and 97% have found Covid-19 restrictions to increase their anxiety surrounding childbirth. The charity stresses their concern that this anxiety could have “catastrophic” impacts on new mothers and their families.
It just really brings home that during pregnancy the humanity of the woman is forgotten. We are just a vessel for the baby, not ourselves the patient too.
— Caroline Criado Perez (@CCriadoPerez) January 31, 2021
“Pregnant women are not just a vessel for baby-making, and they shouldn’t be treated as such.”
Perhaps even more cruelly, a recent study found that 52% of pregnant women who had to attend scans alone, were told they weren’t even allowed to film or photograph their sonogram for their families. These women report that they were told the practice was “illegal”, despite this not being true.
So, not only are pregnant women attending scans alone, giving birth alone and in some awful cases miscarrying alone, they can’t even try to share the valuable moment of a sonogram with their partner through their phones. Caroline Criado Perez, author of Invisible Women, was forced to deal with her miscarriage without her partner and described the process as “traumatising” and “inhumane”.
Responding to the recent news of pregnant women being told not to film their scans, Perez noted that this is yet another example of a “failure to remember that the person carrying the baby is still a person even when they are growing another person inside them.” Pregnant women are not just a vessel for baby-making, and they shouldn’t be treated as such.
It is imperative that NHS trusts endeavour to improve their efforts in allowing partners into scans and births. Without such efforts, pregnant women are isolated and left traumatised. We mustn’t forget that pregnant women are more than just child-carrying machines. They are real people with real worries and completely justified anxieties. Becoming a mother is stressful enough without these added pressures unnecessarily piled on top.
Nia Thomas
Featured image courtesy of Arteida MjESHTRI via Unsplash. Image licence found here. No changes were made to the image.