Author of England maternity care review ‘listened to wrong voices’, says adviser

The author of a major inquiry into maternity care altered its final report to remove criticism of “normal birth ideology”, one of her expert advisers claims. Dr Bill Kirkup said Valerie Amos had “listened to the wrong voices” before a section outlining the potential risks of encouraging women to have a vaginal birth “disappeared” from the final version of her government-commissioned report . The section was removed even though “a significant number of people” had already approved the wording of that part of the document, he said. “I don’t think it’s right that we should push this issue under the covers. This is a patient safety danger and I think it should be called out as such,” he told the BBC . Kirkup, a widely respected expert in childbirth safety, resigned as one of the 12 expert clinical advisers to Lady Amos’s nine-month-long review of problems in maternity care in England and how to improve it. He quit eight days before the former Labour cabinet minister published her 174-page report on Tuesday. Advocates of normal birth, including many midwives, believe women giving birth should do so as far as possible vaginally, and without drugs or medical interventions such as the use of forceps or delivering the baby by caesarean section. England has unusually high rates of both procedures by international standards. …