A mother of two from Hove is speaking to a group of MPs this evening about maternity services.
Hannah Sherlock, 40, of Nizells Avenue, Hove, is addressing the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Maternity at Portcullis House, next to the Houses of Parliament in London.
She was invited to share her expertise by Hove Conservative MP Mike Weatherley and former Royal Sussex County Hospital obstetrician and gynaecologist Daniel Poulter.
Dr Poulter, who worked at the hospital in Eastern Road, Brighton, until last year, is now the Conservative MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich.
Hannah Sherlock is chairman of the Maternity Services Liaison Committee in Brighton and Hove and represents women using maternity services in the area.
She also runs the Home Birth Support Group and said: “I had two children at home in Brighton and I had fantastic experiences and I wanted to support other couples planning home births.
“I experienced how brilliant it was to know the person coming to my delivery.
“There needs to be more investment in midwives.
National shortage
“There’s been a lot of underinvestment for years.
“There’s a national shortage. The Royal College of Midwives said we need another 3,000 midwives now.”
She said that the underinvestment was a false economy.
She believes that a properly funded service would mean women were more relaxed and less likely to need costly interventions such as an emergency caesarean section.
She said that they would then also be more likely to breastfeed their newborns, with all the health benefits that that brings, and less likely to suffer from post-natal depression.
She added: “If you get birth right for women, a lot else falls into place.
“It’s an amazingly daunting thing to talk to all these MPs but a great opportunity.
“We need investment in midwives and we need to rethink how we’re organising our midwives.
“There’s this conveyor belt approach at the moment.
“Women arrive at hospital often desperately frightened and not even knowing who’s going to see them through their labour.
“The problem is that too many people have an experience they don’t want to repeat in a hurry.
“The women in this country are being denied the chance to experience birth in the way that they should.
“We need to get back in touch with what women need in labour.
“And we need more choice for women.”
Re:- There’s been a lot of underinvestment for years.
I agree entirely over this, as I miscarried due to Dr Price’s lack of knowledge about lupus, at Royal Sussex county hospital, in 1990. Dr Walters made a mess of things and others too. They promised to improve maternity services and the bad management of my lupus condition was covered, up by numerous consultants. There were numerous blunders over the years and to this day in my care by lupus consultants, and kidney consultants. I was unable to have children as my ovaries got destroyed through toxic medicines, and have osteopinia. Later I ended up in dialysis, my husband gave me a kidney saving them thousands in my care. I have saved them thousands in patient care as I went for private care to Prof. Hughes. I am seeing prof. Hughes in London as Selbie has cut-off my care because I was asking too many questions, and I cannot ‘sustain’ relationships. Is it any surprise I cannot sustain relationships, as there have been numerous media reports supporting poor care at this hospital, poor nursing care, one blunder after another?
Nonetheless they have had no patent alerts in place. Ombudsman have no teeth to investigate patient concerns, she simply watched my distress so she is guilty of patient abuse as well. The whistle-blowers are silenced and so am I as a patient raising alterts. I have shared my lived experiences with the health select committee and Mike Weatherley and asked him to speak to the MP Dorrell, who is the chair of health select committee. My other patients’ lived experiences echo many of the findings here and those of Mr Dorrell’s findings.