Midwives Learn About Decolonisation And Birthing People

Midwives are being taught about ‘decolonisation’ and ‘birthing people’ as part of their training to deliver newborns.

The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) wants universities to ‘challenge the implicit and explicit legacies of colonial perspectives’ while training students how to practically deal with medical emergencies during pregnancy and delivery.

The professional body says trainee midwives should also learn about ‘white privilege’ and the ‘effects of colonisation and decolonisation’ as part of their three-year course.

Qualified midwifery staff should also use a Decolonising Midwifery tool kit to ‘reconstruct education from a global perspective, removing the colonial lens through which most education is perceived’, it suggests.

This, it says, is vital to ‘improve maternity care outcomes for women, birthing people and their families’.

Critics blamed the trade union for diverting attention from the real problems enveloping inadequate NHS maternity care, at a time when two-thirds of facilities are considered to be failing in safety.

Dr Caroline Johnson, shadow minister for health and an NHS consultant paediatrician who has attended thousands of births, said focusing on ideology over medical practicalities was ‘madness’.

‘The top priority for midwife training should be ensuring the safety of mothers and babies during delivery,’ she said.

‘So this ideological nonsense is nothing but a distraction and should have no place in the midwives’ education. If the Government is serious about putting patients first, they should intervene and stop this madness from taking hold.’

The tool kit is also ‘an important first step in ensuring that future midwives can practise with cultural competence’, says the RCM.

It has also issued a Decolonising Practice in Midwifery position statement, encouraging members – many of whom work for the NHS – to take ‘proactive measures… to address implicit and explicit colonial perspectives which persist within maternity services’.

NHS maternity care is under increased scrutiny following several high-profile investigations.

They include more than 200 baby deaths at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.

In a recent review of services, the Care Quality Commission (CQC)found maternity failings are becoming ‘normalised’. The CQC highlighted poor management, unsafe assessments at triage and failures to learn from mistakes.

Staffing and retention problems have left the NHS short of approximately 2,500 full-time midwives, contributing to safety failings.

Gill Walton, chief executive of the RCM, said the recommendations aim to address widespread inequality among maternity services.

‘To reduce these avoidable deaths and reduce inequality, we have to look at how midwifery is both taught and practised,’ she said.

I’m really angry about all this nonsense. Finding the person or people engaged in this decision is what we need to do. They should be named, shamed, and fired since they are unfit to be in this type of role.

People in the UK are working 60 plus hours a week to pay tax for boaties to stay in posh hotels free from hardship. We are also giving aid to China, India and South African farmers while our own countrymen and women are getting shafted. Privileged – are you having a laugh?

The tool kit is also ‘an important first step in ensuring that future midwives can practice with cultural competence.’ Let’s just focus on medical competence, shall we?

This training course is not necessary, and the funds might be used for more crucial NHS projects at a time when the UK needs to be frugal with taxpayer money and only spend it on necessary services.

This is not training, it’s political indoctrination in a false and dangerous ideology. Nazism is back, but now in a more subtle way!