Latest news with #TheoClarke
BBC News
18-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Birmingham MP says maternity care for black women must improve
An MP has said maternity care for black women "has to improve" after an inquiry into services got under Hamilton, who represents Birmingham Erdington, said one in four black women receiving maternal care were "dying or having poor outcomes" across Labour MP's comments came after the health and social care select committee, of which she is acting chair, launched its inquiry into black maternal health earlier this week."Mothers go into hospital and it's supposed to be a happy occasion," she told BBC Politics Midlands. "But they're coming out with no children, dying or are disabled for some reason. It has to be improved."Ms Hamilton defended the government on the issue and said it was committed to improving maternity services in the NHS. 'Not really fair' Councillor Ade Adeyemo, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Solihull Council, agreed people from ethnic minorities "do extremely badly in maternity".He criticised the government's reorganisation of integrated care boards (ICBs), which he said would distract health leaders from improving services."The focus is not going to be on maternity care," he said. "By the time they finish sorting out the reorganisation, we've got mothers, parents, families who are having to go through bad experiences with their maternity which is not really fair."Ex-Conservative MP Theo Clarke, who represented Stafford from 2019 to 2024, recently criticised the government for its lack of progress in improving maternity care. She suffered severe blood loss and needed emergency surgery following a 40-hour labour to deliver her daughter at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in Conservative Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Ben Adams praised Ms Clarke for raising an issue that many first-time mothers "didn't feel comfortable raising"."Having a child is such a wonderful thing but it is a traumatic, massive act and I think fundamentally we need the NHS and others to listen very carefully about what Theo has said about how they can improve," he added. 'Greater needs' As a result of a landmark review into maternity care at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, NHS England said it would increase spending on maternity care by £95m a analysis of NHS funding for this year, carried out by the Health Service Journal, showed just £2m of the £95m was to be ringfenced for and Social Care Minister Stephen Kinnock defended the government's decision and said decisions about funding should be made locally by told BBC Politics Midlands: "They are best placed to determine how best to manage care across their areas. There will be greater needs in some parts of the country than others." Follow BBC Birmingham on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
'Government must speed up maternity care changes'
Ex-Conservative MP Theo Clarke has criticised the government for its lack of progress in improving maternity care in England and Wales. Ms Clarke has campaigned on the issue since making an emotional speech in the House of Commons in 2023 about her own maternity experience and also chaired an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) that made recommendations. The former MP for Stafford suffered severe blood loss and needed emergency surgery following a 40-hour labour to deliver her daughter, at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in 2022. She has now written a book, detailing her own harrowing experience, in a bid to help other women. Ms Clarke launched the memoir "Breaking The Taboo - Why We Need to Talk About Birth Trauma" in London on Tuesday evening. She said: "[The government] appear to have been under the misapprehension that I would disappear when I lost my seat - that is not going to happen". Speaking on the book's publication day, Ms Clarke told the BBC she never expected to be writing a memoir about being a new MP and having a baby during her time in office. "I hope by me sharing my story of my traumatic birth, it allows other mothers to feel seen and heard and listened to and that was very much the point of me writing it," she added. Ms Clarke also called on the government to bring in the cross-party recommendations of the birth trauma inquiry, which called for an overhaul of the UK's maternity and postnatal care. "The government has been in power now for 10 months and we've had no major announcements on maternity," she said. The Birth Trauma Inquiry, published in May 2024, included evidence from more than 1,300 women who had experienced traumatic births. Ms Clarke added there was still "so much to do" to improve maternity care for women. "There seems to be a real shame and a stigma about issues in women's health and we don't talk about them enough and certainly not in Parliament - so I hope by me very publicly sharing my story has helped make that difference," she said. "We've got to improve and standardise maternity care across the UK and that's the point of my campaign and that's why I've written a book about it." Ms Clarke was joined at the launch by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, who conducted the independent review into the baby deaths scandal at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) and is currently chairing an inquiry into maternity care in Nottinghamshire. Ms Ockenden, who wrote the foreword for the book, said: "Three years ago the then Secretary of State Sajid Javid agreed to implement my recommendations, but in the intervening years not enough has happened". Earlier this month, it was reported that of the £100m allocated to improve maternity care in the aftermath of the SaTH inquiry, only £2m is ring-fenced this year to be spent on maternity services, In response however, the Department of Health (DoH) said progress was being made. "[This is] across a number of the recommendations from the APPG on Birth Trauma, including achieving 5.8% increase in the number of midwives," it said in a statement. It added that this week it had announced a rollout of a national NHS training programme to reduce the number of brain injuries during childbirth. After she lost her seat in 2024 General Election, Ms Clarke launched a podcast on the topic of birth trauma and interviewed campaigners and other women who had also experienced traumatic births. A number of women from across the country also feature in her book, including Molly Hunter, a mum of three, who lives in Staffordshire. Ms Hunter has endured a number of missed miscarriages - a pregnancy that has failed, but the body hasn't started the process of miscarriage - and said she wanted to share her story to try and make a difference. "My contribution to albeit small, shares a different angle because a lot of the book is focussing on birth trauma and for my second, third, fourth and fifth pregnancies, I had the miscarriages and never got to the stage where I was able to bring my baby home," she said. "Theo is breaking the taboo, talking about the issues that so many women suffer from and I think she has done such an important job. "I think going through a miscarriage is a very very lonely process." Ms Hunter hoped the book would "highlight the postcode lottery" that determined the care that women received. A survey by Mumsnet in April found that the vast majority of mothers had experienced physical or psychological birth trauma, of which 53% said they were less likely to have more children because of their experience of maternity care. The Tory government agreed to implement the recommendations of Theo's Birth Trauma APPG report last year, however nine days later the general election was called. "In the turmoil that followed, the government let down women, three years on I'm still working, the government must listen," said Ms Ockenden. "We are all born and we are all affected by this." The DoH accepts there is more to be done. "Through our Plan for Change, we are transforming the NHS, training thousands more midwives and have set an explicit target to close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap," it said. Ms Clarke said: "The campaign is not over and I am very unhappy that they have not adopted all of our recommendations". Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram. MP breaks down recalling 'terrifying' birth trauma
BBC News
14-05-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Ex-MP Theo Clarke says maternity care changes must be made faster
Ex-Conservative MP Theo Clarke has criticised the government for its lack of progress in improving maternity care in England and Clarke has campaigned on the issue since making an emotional speech in the House of Commons in 2023 about her own maternity experience and also chaired an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) that made former MP for Stafford suffered severe blood loss and needed emergency surgery following a 40-hour labour to deliver her daughter, at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in 2022. She has now written a book, detailing her own harrowing experience, in a bid to help other women. Ms Clarke launched the memoir "Breaking The Taboo - Why We Need to Talk About Birth Trauma" in London on Tuesday evening. She said: "They (the government) appear to have been under the misapprehension that I would disappear when I lost my seat - that is not going to happen". 'Not enough has happened' Ms Clarke was joined at the launch by senior midwife Donna Ockenden, who conducted the independent review into the baby deaths scandal at the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (Sath Inquiry) and is currently chairing an inquiry into maternity care in Ockenden, who wrote the foreword for the book, said: "Three years ago the then Secretary of State Sajid Javid agreed to implement my recommendations, but in the intervening years not enough has happened". Earlier this month, it was reported that of the £100m allocated to improve maternity care in the aftermath of the Sath Inquiry, only £2m is ring-fenced this year to be spent on maternity services, In response however, the Department of Health (DoH) said progress was being made."[This is] across a number of the recommendations from the APPG on Birth Trauma, including achieving 5.8% increase in the number of midwives," it said in a added that this week it had announced a rollout of a national NHS training programme to reduce the number of brain injuries during childbirth. After she lost her seat in 2024 General Election, Ms Clarke launched a podcast on the topic of birth trauma and interviewed campaigners and other women who had also experienced traumatic births.A number of women from across the country also feature in her book, including Molly Hunter, a mum of three, who lives in Staffordshire. 'Miscarriage is a lonely process' Ms Hunter has endured a number of missed miscarriages - a pregnancy that has failed, but the body hasn't started the process of miscarriage - and said she wanted to share her story to try and make a difference."My contribution to albeit small, shares a different angle because a lot of the book is focussing on birth trauma and for my second, third, fourth and fifth pregnancies, I had the miscarriages and never got to the stage where I was able to bring my baby home," she said."Theo is breaking the taboo, talking about the issues that so many women suffer from and I think she has done such an important job."I think going through a miscarriage is a very very lonely process."Ms Hunter hoped the book would "highlight the postcode lottery" that determined the care that women received. A survey by Mumsnet in April found that the vast majority of mothers had experienced physical or psychological birth trauma, of which 53% said they were less likely to have more children because of their experience of maternity care. 'The campaign continues' The Tory government agreed to implement the recommendations of Theo's Birth Trauma APPG report last year, however nine days later the general election was called. "In the turmoil that followed, the government let down women, three years on I'm still working, the government must listen," said Ms Ockenden. "We are all born and we are all affected by this." The DoH accepts there is more to be done. "Through our Plan for Change, we are transforming the NHS, training thousands more midwives and have set an explicit target to close the Black and Asian maternal mortality gap," it said. Ms Clarke said: "The campaign is not over and I am very unhappy that they have not adopted all of our recommendations". Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
Times
08-05-2025
- Politics
- Times
My birth trauma: ‘Lying in blood, I thought I was going to die'
'I thought I was going to die, I was never going to see my daughter, and my husband would be a single dad,' Theo Clarke says, her nails gripping the sofa. 'I was lying in blood and faeces, rushed by trolley into theatre and operated on without any general anaesthetic. The pain was excruciating. I went into the hospital with fairy lights and a playlist — I came out with a third-degree tear and incontinent, but I had my baby.' Sitting in her immaculate terraced home in Ealing, west London, surrounded by her daughter Arabella's toys, the former Tory MP for Stafford looks like the archetypal no-nonsense, jolly hockey sticks woman. A one-time charity CEO, and the niece of Jacob Rees-Mogg, she always prided herself
Daily Mail
27-04-2025
- Health
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE I tore terribly in childbirth and nearly bled out. I lost control of my bowels and was consumed with shame at bleeding constantly. The devastating impact of the reality of birth in Britain means I'll never have another child: THEO CLARKE
With unflinching honesty, Theo Clarke yesterday laid bare the brutal realities of childbirth in today's NHS – and her own 48-hour labour which left her fearing for her life. In today's extract from her powerful birth memoir, the ex-Tory MP who led Parliament's first debate on birth trauma reveals how she turned her own experience into a rallying cry for change… My baby daughter was handed to me and I felt an instant rush of love. I truly forgot everything – despite the horrors of the previous few hours – as my husband Henry and I hugged as a family of three, agreeing to call her Arabella.
