My Blog

One of the many privileges I have from speaking about postnatal illness is listening and learning from others.

Last month I was honoured to be invited to speak at a ‘Postnatal Best Practice’ Maternity study day at the Perinatal Institute in Birmingham.

‘The Perinatal Institute is a national not-for-profit organisation set up to enhance the safety and quality of maternity care. It is a qualified provider of maternity support services, including education and training in standardised maternity records, fetal growth assessment and perinatal audit.’

At this day it was an honour to share the platform with two outstanding ladies.

The first was Mandy Williams who shared her research around ‘Postnatal perineal recovery and morbidity’.

I was shocked to discover the incidence of how many woman 12 months after giving birth are still having problems with their bodies. This may include issues with bladder leakage, continence difficulties, pain with intercourse. The very alarming fact was that so many of these ladies suffer in silence as often they are too embarrassed to ask for help or consider it to be ‘normal’ after having a baby. Usually with treatment all of the conditions can be solved.

I was also surprised that ladies who had a Caesarean section also had problems. I had wrongly assumed that it would only be those who had a vaginal delivery.

What occurred to me was that if a new mum has issues due to ‘down below’ that make her unwilling or cautious to leave the house or affects her intimate relationship, this can greatly affect her social isolation and self-esteem. This could contribute to postnatal depression.

It made me wonder how many ladies are still having concerns years later. I bet I wasn’t the only person in the room to be doing pelvic floor exercises as Mandy spoke!

• If you are in practice is this a question you ask new mums? If not, why not?
• If you are a Mum of any age with issues in the perineal area, I encourage you to see your GP.

Amazingly I was having lunch with a friend recently and told her about this talk. She confessed that she has just had an operation recently to improve her situation – she has struggled since her first baby was born. He is 19!

After I had shared my experiences and my knowledge of helping to make motherhood happier for others, we then hung on every word shared by the final speaker, Annie Burrett.  Wow!

Annie is a specialist midwife who spoke on ‘Sensitive Postnatal Care for Bereaved Parents’. I wish every midwifery unit had an ‘Annie’. She shared with us many of her experiences in dealing with parents who have had the heartbreak of miscarriage, still birth or new born death. It was a true privilege to listen to her suggestions on how best to approach such situations.  The depth and level of her care and compassion was incredible. I especially loved her encouragement to the health professionals there to ‘stand up’ for what they know is right in supporting such situations and to have the strength of character sometimes to challenge policy and do what the people involve really need.

Thankfully we are beyond the days of lifeless little bodies being scurried off to the sluice. Instead we should be aiming for ways to help support families through such a dreadfully sad time. I liked that she also supported midwives who shed a tear with them. It is okay to show that as a health professional you are human.  Annie also shared with us some practical ways of creating memory boxes and images of the babies.  This again was done so sensitively.  One of the charities she recommended was Sands. I know that this charity has helped families I have been involved with.

I strongly suspect that the student midwives in the room as well as those qualified, will have taken away some real pearls of wisdom and confidence to approach some very potentially ‘sensitive’ areas around postnatal issues. Some of the comments confirmed this:

‘Excellent presentations, thought provoking, relevant & essential for continued professional development as a midwife.’

‘Everything I have learned today is going to help me in the future for midwifery.’

‘Fantastic presentations; worth the travel & early start. Very much looking forward to coming to another study day in the future.’

Thank you to those at the Perinatal Institute for an inspirational day. I have certainly taken away knowledge to share.

Also in October there was another step forward for help and awareness around perinatal health.

‘Tommy’s has released a report into perinatal mental health, in conjunction with Netmums, the Institute of Health Visiting and the Royal College of Midwives, and supported by the Boots Family Trust.

The pressure to succeed as a mum is a key contributor to developing either pre- or post-natal anxiety and depression, according to a study of 1500 women with perinatal mental health problems.

The study showed that symptoms were severe:

• 43% did not want to leave the house
• 22% had suicidal thoughts
• 30% reported that their symptoms lasted for more than 18 months
• Yet three in four felt unable to fully tell a health professional, and 40% didn’t receive any treatment.’

You can see the full report here.

The coalition who published the report has launched a Wellbeing Plan for women and health professionals so that women’s emotional health in pregnancy and after birth is given the same attention as their physical health.

Download the Wellbeing Plan here.

• Who do you know that you can share this information with?

Together we can make a positive difference to many new Mothers and their families.

Elaine