World Health Organisation (WHO) Advises Not to Intervene to Speed up Births Unless Real Risks Involved

New guidance from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has overturned decades of previous advice, which said that labour which progressed at a slower rate than 1cm of cervical dilation per hour in the first stage was risky. Medical Staff and Midwives have now been advised not to intervene to speed up a woman’s labour unless there are real risks of complications.

Increased intervention during birth over the past 20 years

Worldwide, an estimated 140 million births take place every year. Most of these occur without complications for women and their babies.  However, over the past 20 years, practitioners have increased the use of interventions, such as oxytocin infusion, to speed up labour or caesarean sections, which were previously only used to avoid risks or treat complications.

About 830 women die from complications in pregnancy or childbirth around the world every day.  Most could be prevented with high quality care in pregnancy and during child birth.

Government 2025 targets for safer births

In England alone, tens of thousands of mothers and babies were harmed by potential lapses in maternity care in the past two years. The government has set a target for halving the overall rate of still births, deaths and baby injuries by 2025.  A part of these plans, a voluntary reporting scheme run by the regulator NHS improvement, reported more than 276,000 incident logged by hospital staff between April 2015 and March 2017.

Most were minor or near misses but others led to the mother or baby being severely harmed and in 288 cases there was a death. These include a range of problems such as:-

• Delays dealing with women who had suffered haemorrhages and other complications;
• Babies left brain damaged after being deprived of oxygen during birth;
• Babies not screened for infections, leaving them at risk of meningitis, blood poising and pneumonia;
• Heart rates incorrectly measured or recorded;
• Delays in emergency C-sections. Causing distress to the baby;
• Midwives requesting help from consultants too late or not at all;
• Women being told to stay at home or sent away from maternity units despite reporting potentially serious problems.

According to the NHS Improvement Scheme some hospitals have more cases than others, although this may also be because a hospital may report more incidents and be more transparent about its care.

Medical negligence in maternity

Maternity is the biggest cause of medical negligence pay outs accounting for half of the cost of all claims.

Medical Negligence specialist, Pardeep Gill comments on the recent news, “If the current situation is to improve there needs to be more consistency in NHS training for midwives and doctors with examples of good practice in some hospitals being replicated in hospitals across the country. Mistakes are often repeated so lessons need to be learnt. A careful balance needs to be found not to undermine a woman’s normal child birth experience but at the same time weigh up the risks for when medical intervention is required. Every woman should have a safe environment with skilled medical professionals and good facilities to make an informed choice for her birth experience.  However, if complications do arise, medical intervention is crucial to ensure the wellbeing of both mother and child”.

Get in touch with our team

Dean Wilson has expertise in clinical negligence cases relating to obstetric and birth injury claims.

If you, or a loved one, have been affected by failings in maternity care we may be able to help you. Please do not hesitate to contact Pardeep Gill on 01273 249200 for a free initial consultation.