The health secretary has described the fear she faced while giving birth as she set out the government’s priorities for women’s health in 2024.
Victoria Atkins said her own “frightening” experience of pregnancy reinforced a commitment to improve maternity services and reduce traumatic birth experiences.
“For me, this is personal. The NHS diagnosed me with type 1 diabetes at the age of three. And so I have seen the very best of the NHS, but I’ve also seen some of its darker corners. One of those darker corners was when I was pregnant,” she said in a speech to mark the second year of the government’s 10-year women’s health strategy for England.
“Pregnancy with type 1 diabetes can be a very medicalised process. And there came a point in the pregnancy where it became clear that baby was going to have to be delivered early. And so I was rushed into hospital.”
The hospital helped “amazingly well” but did not have the facilities to look after someone who needed to give birth prematurely, with complications, she said.
“They put me in a ward with women who had just given birth, literally rushed from theatre and who had had very traumatic experiences,” she said.
“And you will understand how deeply worrying and dare I say frightening it was to be lying in that ward with women who had gone through a hellish experience, who were in agony, who were needing very, very urgent medical treatment. For me to be there, ready to have my baby.”
Atkins, who has a son called Monty, said that although she knew everybody was doing their best, standards need to be improved.
She said: “I desperately want to ensure that women who are expecting and who find themselves needing a bit of extra help are not in that situation and they’re not facing the fear that I faced. And so as I say, I absolutely get it and it is very much personal for me.”
Speaking at the inaugural Women’s Health Summit in London on Wednesday, Atkins praised Conservative MP Theo Clarke, who herself had a traumatic birth and is now leading a parliamentary inquiry into it.
“Some mums endure simply unacceptable care, and live with the consequences of that trauma for the rest of their lives. Some have told their stories in the media, harrowing experiences of tears prolapses, operations and agony.
“And they’ve done this because they want to shine a light on the impact of such experiences.”
Referring to figures released last week showing that 293 women died in pregnancy, or within 42 days of the end of pregnancy between 2020 and 2022, she said that meant “293 families are grieving the profound loss of a mother who will also be someone’s daughter, partner, wife, sister or friend and their babies who have lived, where their loss is indescribable”.
Atkins announced £50m of new funding for research to tackle maternal disparities and support for research into other aspects of women’s health.
Specialist mental health services are due to be made available to women in all areas of England by March, and every women who gives birth will be offered a checkup with their GP within eight weeks, focusing solely on mental and physical health.
“We will encourage more research into lobular breast cancer and other under researched women’s health issues, as well as conditions that affect women and men differently such as heart attacks,” she said.
