In 2021, the organization “Maternity Uprising” appeared in Norway. The organization believes that today’s food supply is far from being good enough, and therefore it is working to make a difference.
On the site, they also collected dozens of stories from Norwegian women recounting dramatic births and a lack of follow-up.
Many of them also wrote that they were sent home from the maternity ward long before they were ready.
“I cried and wanted to stay there longer”
“Then the day came (slightly two days after the operation) when we were due to be sent home. I cried and wanted to stay there longer – I wasn’t ready to go. It was January, so there was a lot of free time in the maternity hotel, so I didn’t We shouldn’t have given up our room for anyone else. We still say we should leave,” one woman wrote in one Anonymous post on the site.
The woman says she can barely move because of the pain after a cesarean delivery, and says it was painful to carry a baby, a car seat and luggage to the parking lot.
The woman wrote: “The ride to the car was so excruciating, and with a child who seemed to be upset and cried all the way home, it was a traumatic experience.”
The story of the woman from Oslo is not unique. Now, the maternity uprising has made ten demands to the Minister of Health to improve maternity care.
For professional societies, they fear the situation will get worse.
cut a bed
There is already a shortage of places in maternity wards, and in many of the new hospitals being built in Norway today, there will be fewer places.
When the first part of the new hospital in Stavanger is ready in 2024, it will move from 44 to 42 places in the maternity ward.
In Bergen, there will be 42 to 31 maternity wards when the new Children’s and Adolescent Hospital becomes ready in 2023.
Places to give birth: In many of the new Norwegian hospitals, the number of birthing places is being reduced. And when Ullevål Hospital closes, so will the ABC Clinic. Photo: Mina Maria Rice/TV2
Marit Halonen Christiansen, head of the women’s clinic at the hospital in Stavanger, told TV 2 that it’s population projections that reduce the number of rooms.
It is difficult to say what changes it will lead to for a woman. We are working to create the best maternity care possible. The department head says the fact that the women get a private room rather than having to share one, means they can pretty much bring a partner with them, which is an improvement.
– That there will be fewer beds, we should try to compensate in other ways, it is not certain that this will lead to poor service, she continues.
Strongly warns
As a result of the fact that there will be fewer places, on the other hand, professional societies fear that this will mean that new parents will have to settle for an early trip home.
As midwives, we want to caution against sending people home less than 24 hours after birth. It is not professionally ingrained in maternity guidelines, which state that the mother should breastfeed and the mother is ready to go home, Hannah Charlotte Schildrup, president of the NSF Midwives Association, tells TV 2.
– disturbing
Schjeldrup cites studies from Rikshospitalet in 2021 that show some women want to go home early after giving birth.
12 percent choose to go home within 24 hours. She says only healthy mothers who have had children eventually get the chance.
Schildrup also asserts that shorter lengths of stay are associated with increased postpartum depression. come out in one check up Published by Tidsskriftet from 2021.
– We think that’s worrisome, she says.
– There are no resources
The head of the Midwives Association understands that this is exclusively about savings requirements, but the consequences of this will give many parents a worse start in their parenting life.
Concern: NSF Midwifery Association President Hanne Charlotte Schjelderup is concerned about future maternity care. Photo: Midwives Association
We know that less than half of newborns receive home visits from a midwife. They should have it between one to three days after birth, but there are no resources for that at the municipal midwifery service, Schjelderup warns.
Already in 2014, the Norwegian Directorate of Health concluded that maternity care in Norway is changing.
What counts as a short stay is not specified, and can vary between different health funds.
“But there is reason to believe that outpatient births will become more common when it comes to healthy women who deliver healthy babies at term. They are due to go home within 4-24 hours after birth,” the Norwegian Health Directorate wrote in this report. supervisor.
More common: The Norwegian Directorate of Health believes that so-called out-of-birth, or natural childbirth, is becoming more common, and is allowing more people to go home early from hospital. Photo: Mina Maria Rice/TV2
Although the Norwegian Directorate of Health writes that the return trip is planned between 4-24 hours after birth, this is not something they recommend.
He was also warned in the manual of early return if the individual municipality did not organize adequate follow-up.
– Not for everyone
The political leader of the Midwives Association, Carrie Aarrow, is reacting aggressively to the changes that are likely to come.
Coming home early is good for some, but not for everyone. If more women are pressured to do so, it’s not a good solution, Aarø tells TV 2.
At Rikshospitalet and Ullevål hospitals in Oslo, new fathers stayed in the maternity ward an average of 2.47 and 2.64 days, respectively, in 2021.
But in the future, the length of stay will likely be much shorter.
We fear that there is a rush to get more, and that it is not voluntary, says Aru.
Fear midwives will quit
She fears it will affect the professional quality.
If there is more pressure to force women out, and you are not allowed to do your job properly because of time and place, it will exceed professional quality and the desire to keep the job, says the political leader.
Disagree: OUS Head of Obstetrics Miriam Nyberg disagrees that there is a plan for reduced maternity leave. Photo: private
The director of the maternity ward at Oslo University Hospital, Miriam Nyberg, does not agree that there are plans for reduced maternity leave in the coming years.
It also confirms that the offer of early return is based on volunteering.
Today, approximately 12 percent of OUS maternity women want to go home within 24 hours after giving birth. Births are not a standardized group, so the length of hospital stay is also different, Nyberg tells TV 2.
Despite the fact that Nyberg disagrees that there has been talk of a show cut, Schjelderup at the Midwives Association believes this would be a larger national problem.
Now ask the politicians to come to the square.
– This is a result of our financing model for food supply. When we see that the women who will give birth get sicker, older and need more resources, it is reversed to build an offer that does not include the patient group in a good enough way.
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