Should more be being done to welcome fathers onto maternity wards?
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 6 February 2020
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Last month, midwives at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary complained that expectant dads were treating maternity wards ‘like a hotel’. Issues ranged from dads sharing beds with new mums, ordering takeaway food and making other new mothers embarrassed about breastfeeding. But as NHS policy states that maternity services should be ‘mother-focussed and family-centred’, should more be being done to welcome fathers onto wards?
The UK government is chartering a final flight to bring British nationals back from the Chinese city at the centre of the coronavirus outbreak. In China alone, there are now more than 24,300 cases of the virus, with the death toll at nearly 500. Dr Clare Wenham Assistant Professor in Global Health at the LSE tells us why she believes that the response to health emergencies should not be gender neutral.
We asked you to share your experiences of being part of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Today a listener tells us about fighting for the right to sterilisation when her husband withheld his consent. Plus the impact joining the movement had on her life.
Plus we hear from Syrian paediatrician Dr Amani Ballour, now the focus of an Oscar–nominated documentary called ‘The Cave’.
Presenter Jenni murray Producer Beverley Purcell
Guest; Dr Clare Wenham Guest; Dr Amani Ballour Guest; Dr Jeremy Davies
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Choosing what to watch night after night the flicking through the endless |
| 0:06.8 | searching is a nightmare we want to help you on our brand new podcast off the |
| 0:11.8 | telly we share what we've been watching |
| 0:14.0 | Fladiated. |
| 0:16.0 | Load to games, loads of fun, loads of screaming. |
| 0:19.0 | Lovely. Off the telly with me Joanna Paige. |
| 0:21.0 | And me, Natalie Cassidy, so your evenings can be a little less |
| 0:25.0 | searching and a lot more auction listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:30.0 | BBC Sounds music radio podcasts. |
| 0:34.4 | Hello Jenny Murray welcoming you to the Women's Our Podcast for Thursday, the 6th of February. |
| 0:41.2 | In today's programme, the midwives in the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary |
| 0:45.6 | who complained that new fathers treat the ward like an hotel. The NHS says |
| 0:51.2 | the maternity services should be family centered, so how can the fathers fit in? |
| 0:57.2 | A documentary called The Cave has been nominated for an Oscar. |
| 1:01.6 | It features the Syrian pediatrician who ran a subterranean hospital |
| 1:06.2 | through the bombs and threats of chemical attacks. She joins us this morning. |
| 1:10.8 | And last week we celebrated the 50th anniversary of the first |
| 1:14.8 | women's liberation conference in this country. Myro who is now 78 heard the program and |
| 1:21.0 | emailed to tell us what women's lib did for her. |
| 1:26.1 | Now I'm sure you've heard in the news that the coronavirus shows no signs of coming under |
| 1:30.9 | control. A baby was born with the virus on the 2nd of February the child's |
| 1:35.6 | mother had tested positive before she gave birth. Only a handful of children are said to |
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