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The National Institute For Clinical Excellence (NICE) UK, are proposing recommending…
The National Institute For Clinical Excellence (NICE) UK, are proposing recommending routine induction at 39 weeks if you are not White. Before we delve deeper into this, it's not an 'induction is terrible' post. I myself have had 3. Inductions do come with risks though.
NICE are suggesting early induction if you have brown skin.
Midwife @_aliciaburnett says: Induction of labour can be beneficial if it is:
- medically indicated
- requested by a pregnant person
However, the new NICE recommendations do not provide robust evidence that induction at 39 weeks for Black, Asian and ethnic minority women experiencing uncomplicated pregnancies is medically indicated or what Black and Brown women want.
NICE also acknowledge that induction:
- removes the satisfaction of achieving the more natural birth that many woman hope for
- is generally more painful than spontaneous labour
- is more likely to lead to assisted (forceps or ventouse) or operative birth
- is more likely to need epidural analgesia All of the above can have lasting implications. 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗱, 𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗴𝗼 𝘁𝗼 @mymidwivesuk 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗷𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰 𝗚𝗼𝗱𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗼 𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝗻:
"My name is Sheridan, I am 36 weeks pregnant I’m a midwife and I’m currently one of the people who NICE would recommend has induction of labour at 39 weeks".
"But I will tell you one thing. My blackness is not something to be “fixed”with induction. It’s not me, or people like me, that is the issue here".
"It took me a while to summon up the emotional capacity to create a response to the NICE draft guideline. I’ve had a difficult pregnancy, I have experienced first hand the racism of our maternity system, I have been made to feel that my body is faulty, I have been ignored, my pain invalidated, my concerns not escalated. There have been scary times, and dark times".
"Black and Brown people’s bodies are not broken".
See my bio for links to a petition to halt this recommendation and to submit comments to NICE b4 the guideline goes live. The deadline is 5pm 6th July. Follow @notson.i.c.e for updates #notsonice
