Publisher's Synopsis
In an emotional debate in the House of Commons in October 2023, then MP Theo Clarke broke down in tears as she described being rushed into emergency surgery after the birth of her daughter, terrified she was going to die.
She received a standing ovation and was amazed at the public response. Having shared her own story, she was inundated with accounts from other mothers of their own traumatic childbirth experiences. Quickly she realised that, although birth trauma is a huge issue, there is still a real taboo around speaking about it.
In the UK alone, it’s estimated that up to 30,000 women a year suffer bad experiences during the delivery of their babies, with one in twenty developing post-traumatic stress disorder as a result. Despite this, poor and substandard maternity and postnatal care is too often tolerated as normal.
Clarke chaired the first UK inquiry into birth trauma, hearing harrowing evidence from more than 1,300 women, some of whose lives were ruined by their experiences. In Breaking the Taboo, as well as telling her own story, she presents the stories and experiences of mothers and fathers from all different backgrounds that show the undiscussed realities of childbirth trauma and poor maternity care. This urgent book will start a conversation that is as essential as it is overdue.
• Birth trauma is one of the world’s biggest challenges in women’s health.
• The book brings forward new testimony and expert opinion to look closely at what needs to be done to end the postcode lottery of care in childbirth and the horrifying experiences women can suffer in maternity units that leave them physically and mentally scarred, unable to work and feeling alone.
• In the twenty-first century, women should not suffer a lack of compassion, substandard care, life-threatening and life-changing injuries simply to become mothers.
