Bumps and Babies with Ruth

📈Here’s a stat from the Ockenden review that doesn’t make the headlines: over 85% of the incidents investigated weren’t about death or injury. They were about birth trauma - mums who physically survived but came out the other side carrying something heavy that never got acknowledged. 😢
If that’s you, if your birth “went fine” on paper but something about it still sits wrong, you are not being dramatic. You’re describing something the biggest maternity report in NHS history just confirmed is real and widespread.
🥰How I can help: postnatal support isn’t just nappies and naps (though also that). It’s having someone to talk your birth through with, who won’t rush you past it or tell you to just be grateful the baby’s healthy.

📒Two big reports landed this week. The Ockenden report into Nottingham maternity care. The Amos review into the whole NHS maternity system. 📖Different trusts, different stories, same heartbreaking thread running through both: women weren’t being listened to.
Not “didn’t get a nice birth experience.” Listened to. As in, they raised a concern and it didn’t get picked up until it was too late.
I read this stuff as a doula and it lands hard, because this is the exact gap continuity of care is meant to fill. Someone who knows you, who’s heard your history, who can say “actually, she did mention this before” when you’re too exhausted or scared to say it again yourself.
🥰How I can help: I help you find the words for what you’re worried about, and I make sure they get heard, whether that’s prepping questions before a triage call or simply being in the room so your concerns don’t get lost.