expectancy - complementary therapy courses for midwives
Derbyshire
Yet again, mainstream media has sensationalised what they perceive as
“witchcraft” – the use of “alternative” therapies by midwives. The Sunday Times
has now waded into the melee, castigating midwives’ use of aromatherapy,
acupuncture, reflexology and “burning herbs to turn a breech baby”
(moxibustion). The article by Health Editor Shaun Lintern also denigrates
practices which are not classified as complementary therapies, such as water
injections for pain relief, hypnobirthing for birth preparation and counselling
sessions following traumatic birth. Some of the accusations focus on their
(inaccurate) statement about the lack of complementary therapy research, whilst
others deplore trusts charging for some of these services. A letter to the Chief
Executive of the NHS has been sent by a group of families whose babies have died
in maternity units that have now come under scrutiny from the Care Quality
Commission and the Ockenden team. Amongst those spearheading this group is a
consultant physician whose baby died during birth (unrelated to complementary
therapies) and who has taken it on himself to challenge the NHS on all matters
pertaining to safety in maternity care. That is admirable – safety is paramount
– but it is obvious neither he, nor the author of this latest article, knows
anything at all about the vast subject of complementary therapies in pregnancy
and birth. The article is padded out with (incorrect) statistics about midwives’
use of complementary therapies, coupled with several pleas for the NHS to ban
care that they say (incorrectly) is not evidence-based and which contravene NICE
guidelines (the relevant word here being guidelines, not directives). The
article is biased and, to my knowledge, no authority on the subject has been
consulted to provide a balanced view (the Royal College of Midwives offered a
generic response but did not consult me, despite being appointed a Fellow of the
RCM specifically for my 40 years’ expertise in this subject). I would be the
first to emphasise that complementary therapies must be safe and, where
possible, evidence-based, and I am well aware that there have been situations
where midwives have overstepped the boundaries of safety in respect of therapies
such as aromatherapy. However, I have not spent almost my entire career
educating midwives (not just providing skills training) and emphasising that
complementary therapy use must be based on a comprehensive theoretical
understanding, to have it snatched away because of a few ill-informed
campaigners intent on medicalising pregnancy and birth even further than it is
already. For well-respected broadsheets to publish such inaccurate and biased
sensationalism only serves to highlight the problems of the British media and
the ways in which it influences public opinion with untruths and poorly informed
reporting.
