What does safety mean to you?

I am interested in what safety means to you, physical, emotional and psychological safety. I recognise how ‘risk’ and ‘safety’ are often viewed through a limited and biased lens, one which often fails to acknowledge that for every individual, what they perceive as a risk and what they need to feel safe is different. Part of figuring out what safety means to you involves examining your belief systems around birth and what you’ve heard about birth, as this can have an impact on the choices you make for you and your baby. What I have come to know is that when a woman feels seen and heard, understood and held without fear and judgement, this creates safety.

We are incredibly lucky in the UK to have access to free, high quality medical resources and services, with highly skilled and dedicated maternity clinicians. As a midwife and mother I am deeply grateful for these services. I know that medical interventions can be the most loving, safest and kindest course of action when they come from a place of choice, understanding and consent. Unfortunately, there are also high levels of fear and defensive practice within current maternity services, which in part comes from trying to implement a narrow view of ‘safety’. This can and often causes iatrogenic harm (harm caused by unnecessary interventions). The problems within our NHS maternity services are multifaceted and acute. What I dream of is a maternity service which prioritise trauma informed care, that nurtures and cares for its staff so they can nurture and care for families. A service which strives for equity and inclusivity by valuing the needs of the most vulnerable and minoritised people in our communities, and by doing so will create models of care which are better for all.