Latest news with #SianChannon
BBC News
15-07-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Couple feel vindicated by critical report into maternity care
A mother who played a key part in pushing for change in a health board's maternity care said she felt vindicated following the publication of a report highlighting Channon's son Gethin was disabled due to failings made during his birth in 2019."It's been a long journey for us, battling to get acknowledgement for what has been going on at Swansea. All the way up to Welsh government level we have been fighting."An assessment of all maternity services in Wales will now have an independent chair following the head of the Birth Trauma Association said it needed to take a thorough look at the culture of maternity units. Mrs Channon said she and her husband Rob "have frequently been brushed off" and ignored, however they now feel the health board has added that an unreserved apology "goes a long way to mend bridges with families who have felt adrift".Rob Channon added: "We do have faith that the new leadership want to make change, we just have to give them time. "If they don't make changes, we will have to hold them accountable for that."Maternity services across the UK have come under the spotlight, with the health secretary in England announcing "a rapid national investigation" into NHS maternity and neonatal services, following a series of maternity scandals going back more than a who support families that have experienced birth trauma argue the same mistakes were being made, with little sign that lessons were being learned. Julia Reynolds heads up legal firm Leigh Day in Wales, and as a medical negligence specialist said the issues had not changed in years."I see cases from all of the health boards across Wales and the issues we see are similar," she said."I have significant concerns about the quality of maternity care across Wales."The review of care in Swansea found that debriefs with families and responses to complaints lacked Reynolds said after losing a baby many families struggle to deal with being told "it was one of those things"."While staff might feel they're doing the right thing by potentially offering reassurance to families, what that really does is just leave those parents without answers, and really nagging doubts.""I do believe it's a disservice to families and I think it's really important for families to have answers, to understand what went wrong and even more importantly, for those children to get that early treatment to get the better outcome." The independent review into care at Swansea Bay included testimony from women who felt vulnerable, brushed off when they raised concerns, and as a result felt guilty for not speaking up for themselves women spoke of a lack of compassion, others felt belittled, and birthing partners felt powerless or called for improvements to the complaints process in Wales to make it less rigid and more Bay health board apologised unreservedly "to all women and families whose care has fallen well below the expected standard" and was working on an improvement Welsh government also apologised, and accepted all recommendations in full. Director of the Royal College of Midwives in Wales, Julie Richards, said the written policies, frameworks and statements from the Welsh government set out positive intentions."However, they cannot be achieved without investment and proper workforce planning."Over the past number of years reports and reviews into maternity services in Wales are sadly flagging the same key issues that are impacting the delivery of safe care, understaffing, underfunding, working culture and not enough emphasis or time for crucial multi-disciplinary training."Our members are seeing a rise in more complex pregnancies, with women requiring more specialist support during pregnancy so it's never been more important to get this right." A big theme from the report into care given in Swansea Bay was that women were not listened to."It's very easy sometimes for staff to dismiss a woman who's distressed as being over-dramatic," said Kim Thomas, from the Birth Trauma Association."We hear quite a lot that women are told they're making too much of a fuss. But when they try to remain calm there's an assumption there's probably nothing wrong."It creates real problems for women. This is where listening comes in - if a woman says she thinks something's wrong, then actually listen to her."The issues were all the more pressing given the disparities experienced by black women across the mortality is almost four times higher than that of white women, with significant disparities for Asian and mixed ethnicity women too. Umyima Sunday said she experienced good care when she delivered her second child at Singleton hospital two years ago, but her labour progressed so quickly she delivered her daughter on the ward."Even in pain, I'm really calm," said the 33-year-old, who moved to Swansea from Nigeria to study a post-graduate course in public health three years ago."I would say they were looking at me thinking, 'she's not in so much pain'."But a woman that has gone through that before knows how her body reacts. They didn't really understand that I was really in pain and needed them at that time."She said that while staff were listening, they lacked urgency, meaning no one was there to guide her through contractions and when to push."I just wanted the baby out and couldn't think properly - if I had someone beside me, guiding me through the process, I would have avoided the tears I had during the process." Perpetua Ugwu, 34, also considered her labour to be "smooth and straight forward" for her second child, and "nurses and midwives attended to me very well".Though she was initially told over the phone to "exercise a little bit of patience" when she told staff labour had started."If I had waited a little longer I would have given birth at home. If I hadn't taken that step to go into the hospital I would have delivered at home, because they didn't believe that my labour was there."But I knew what I was feeling and I knew that my labour is not long, it's usually short."Her waters broke in the taxi to hospital and her baby was born around 30 minutes said if she could change one thing it would be to "take away that stereotype of black women being able to tolerate pain more."We all go through labour in different ways, but if someone complains she is feeling pain or not feeling well, the best they can do is give the person attention. Don't let them wait a little longer."
BBC News
12-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Singleton Hospital maternity report reveals 'concerning' care
Parents of a boy left with lifelong disabilities due to hospital failings during his birth say no lessons have been learnt. Sian and Rob Channon's son Gethin was born at Swansea's Singleton hospital in 2019 and say his life was "destroyed before he took his own breath" after being left with a serious brain comes as a report into the hospital's maternity and neonatal services found pregnant women were left alone in labour or had to give birth outside proper areas, with some mums saying they decided not to have more children as a result of their experiences. Swansea Bay health board apologised to parents with a "poor experience" and said it was focused on strengthening its services. Llais, which represents patients in Wales, based its report on more than 500 people's experiences of maternity and neonatal services at Swansea's Singleton report, carried out over several months at the end of 2024, heard about failings in safety, quality of care and respect at almost every families felt ignored or unable to raise concerns and Llais could not find anybody who shared "an entirely positive experience of their care".The health board insisted a number of changes have been made but Llais said "cultural, clinical and leadership" improvements were most serious concerns in the report revolve around mothers who felt the safety of their babies could have been "at risk", with Llais hearing "distressing stories" of women being left alone in labour and failures to recognise and treat infections. Mr Channon said it was horrifying knowing that Gethin's situation was "avoidable". "As a result of catastrophic failings, he was left with lifelong disabilities. A serious brain injury that has shortened his life expectation and left him really struggling day to day."Gethin can't walk. Gethin can't move on his own. He's fed through a button in his stomach. He's completely reliant on other people for every aspect of his life." Mrs Channon said they found it very difficult to go out anywhere where they see other children. "You can't help but compare children of Gethin's age and wonder why your son isn't running around and splashing in the sea."The couple, who were first made aware of what went wrong during Gethin's birth in 2022, said they were furious a report in 2025 "shows no lessons have been learnt". A total of 76% of people who took part in the survey reported a negative experience or identified failures in the quality of their care, including feeling like being on "a conveyor belt", or "lost in a system".Several women said they were not fully monitored and had to push for mum was left feeling "like a slab of meat" after being left "covered in blood".She added: "I had one person taking my clothes off, another inserting a catheter. I was naked and uncovered. My catheter was left in for 26 hours. I had a horrific experience and just left."One mother said: "This experience is one of the main reasons I will not have more children. I cannot go through all that again."Another said: "At birth I wasn't checked for two hours. I went to the toilet and rang the emergency cord - I gave birth in the toilet cubicle." A separate ongoing independent review of the health board's maternity services, commissioned after serious concerns about maternity services were recorded in 2023 and 2024, is set to be published in the said it wanted to give more families an opportunity to share their experiences. Llais said it was concerning that only 48% of respondents felt involved in decisions about their care, given the importance of informed consent and shared respondents felt "pressurised" into having their babies induced without full discussion of the risks, benefits and the report heard examples of staff providing compassionate, professional and supportive care, it found these were often tied to specific described a "dismissive" culture with one woman feeling "judged" after asking for a bath, and was also told "it isn't the Hilton" for asking for a pillow. The report said "a consistent and deeply concerning theme" was people not being listened to, even when they raised serious mother said she was told to take paracetamol and "rest up" when she phoned a consultant concerned about reduced movement of her unborn child following a car accident. She said: "I later found out that an accident is one of the main causes of a placental abruption. Which is how we actually lost our son. They didn't listen at all."Inadequate or no pain relief was also a frequent complaint, with many women describing being made to feel they were overreacting or imagining included woman being told they were not in pain, being wrongly told they were not in the process of giving birth or being questioned about why they needed pain relief immediately after stitches. Just 53% of respondents reported postnatal care was "positive", while 21% identified poor care, including feeling neglected, unsupported and even unsafe."I had to walk two wards to get to my baby after surgery [then] I collapsed at the reception desk," said one women spoke of being unable to reach their newborn due to a lack of assistance after having caesareans. "I couldn't reach my baby. I was told: 'You're the mum, we don't have to do everything for you'," said one respondent. Some women with babies in the neonatal intensive care unit said they were left to manage their own recovery and were unable able to see their babies. Some women told the report stereotypes affected their care, with black women describing being perceived as "aggressive" and others feeling "invisible".Some who spoke English as a second language said they found it difficult to understand new mum, a healthcare professional, said she was warned complaining about her care could threaten her ability to practise medicine in the UK, which she felt led to severe postnatal depression and the breakdown of her marriage. Llais said it wants acknowledgement from the health board of the scale and nature of poor care and commitment to use the report and the independent review findings to learn and report regularly on performance. It has also asked the Welsh government to encourage the development of a national approach to support those harmed by poor maternity care. Medwin Hughes, chairman of Llais, said: "What's needed now is continued leadership across the system to make sure those experiences are heard and acted on."Health board chief executive Abi Harris said the organisation was "completely focused on strengthening our services and the Llais report recognises many of the improvements that have been made"."We will respond fully to all the recommendations of all these important reports together and ensure we learn and act on them," she Jan Williams apologised and said she was grateful for the report and did not "underestimate how difficult it will have been for individuals who have had a negative experience of our services to relive that while contributing". The Welsh government said its main concern was for the welfare of the mothers and babies. In a statement, it said: "Considerable work is ongoing to improve the safety and quality of maternity services in Swansea Bay, but as the Llais report indicates, there is still more to do to improve the experiences for all women."It added it had commissioned an assessment of the safety and quality of all maternity units in Wales to "measure the impact of recent interventions made".
