Infant Mortality on the rise.

Farzanah

My experience is of Bradford and the evidence there is that the incidence of cousin marriage has decreased in the last 10 years for various reasons. Children born in this country are less accepting of arranged marriage, along with better education, to name two.

To be fair, now I think about it, it is probably about 10 years since my friend told me about this. Time flies, doesn't it?

My experience is of Bradford and the evidence there is that the incidence of cousin marriage has decreased in the last 10 years for various reasons. Children born in this country are less accepting of arranged marriage, along with better education, to name two.

I realise that this is second hand information, but someone I know works as a doctor in a UK hospital, and says that most of the Asian population in the catchment originate from a couple of villages in Bangladesh (as does she). There is a lot of inter-familial marriage, and a lot of genetic problems as a result. The BBC commissioned an investigation into the issue, and made a documentary.

I'm not entirely sure that this is the same one, but it does cover the problem of cousins marrying through the generations:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyNP3s5mxI8

This could explain some of the increase in infant mortality, in that community at least.

In my experience the vegetarians and occasional vegan families that I visited usually had a more balanced diet with plenty of fresh foods than many carnivores. S Asian children are often lacking in Vit D but supplemented with infant vitamin drops readily available. I do wonder about this now with the scarcity of health visitors.

Yes. Chocolatelovinggran
Vegetarian mother to 5 healthy babies here 8lb 7oz to 11lb 13oz
...and grandmother to 8 (5 born to vegetarian mums)

I think it depends on your diet, just as it does if you are an omnivore!

I am definitely blessed though.
And have always been able to eat well (even in the days when I had to turn the sofa over looking for bus fares!).

Also, sazz, although I understand your point about the link between poverty and poor diets in pregnancy, I would challenge the idea that a vegetarian puts her baby at risk.
I am a vegetarian mother of four healthy adults and grandmother to healthy children born to vegetarians.

I had a home birth back in the 70s. Had a lovely midwife who took another job towards the end of my pregnancy. Sad but she handed me over to another lovely midwife who I saw a few times. Unfortunately her husband had a heart attack a few days before baby decided to arrive so I met the midwife who delivered my baby a few hours before he was born. Best laid plans and all that.

Pregnant mothers living in poverty experience much higher levels of stress and anxiety than those living comfortably. It's not a time of balloons, congrat gifts and parties for those facing an uncertain future.

People have babies, even oopsababies, because sex is a human passion.

If the "harder to serve" mums always saw the same midwife I'm sure that would help!

A fair point NotSpaghetti but only if that same midwife delivers a high standard of care.....
If you read the Guardian article that I linked above you'll see how racism and poor institutional culture has a shocking impact on maternity outcomes. Who can blame women for not engaging with care when they are failed so miserably?

That is a good article Calipso and indeed racism is another factor identified by Ockendon,, sometimes not only suffered by the patients but also by the staff I’m afraid.

Yes it was 90p a week in 1974 when DD2 was born, I was thrilled.
It’s strange to think we were apprehensive about the HV coming round and because the new grans weren’t at work they were on hand as well. What a different world.

My children were born in the 70s and had absolutely no visits from midwifes or health visitors. I had to go to local clinic.

Nanny27 Thank you for your correction on child benefit. I thought David Cameron brought in a two child cap on child benefit but clearly having checked, that is wrong.
However what seems to be even worse morally is that universal benefit is capped at two children. This isn’t making sense to me. Surely families on universal benefit are financially struggling?

Should read ; two family allowance at once.

Long long ago in the early 70s, the family allowanc as it was known then, wasn't paid for the first child. I thought I had won the pools having twins after my daughter, wo family allowance at once. Can't recall anyone moaning about it being unfair not being paid for first child. No baby boxes either.

No... most definitely not blaming midwives BTW!

One big difference is trust I feel.
It started in the 1980s I think with the change in focus of midwifery. And I don't mean the individual midwife I mean the medicalisation of childbirth - there are lots of studies on this. The personal midwife who you saw at each visit and learned to trust was gradually eroded until midwives worked in teams and the pregnant woman never saw the same person twice.
The outcomes dropped at that point and in spite of reviews and studies always showing better outcomes with continuity of care The funding has never matched the need.

If the "harder to serve" mums always saw the same midwife I'm sure that would help!

Can we please put aside the daft notion that Asian women are somehow responsible for poor outcomes because of cultural norms around modesty? Like Farzanah I practised in a city with large proportions of Asian and black Caribbean and African women: with culturally sensitive care any difficulties are easily overcome
BUT asGrowstuff pointed out upthread , other factors are at play. These same ethnic groups have far worse maternity outcomes than their white counterparts and are far more highly represented in investigations into sub optimal NHS care. The link below explains further. It makes sickening reading

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/25/the-guardian-view-on-maternity-care-failings-black-women-and-babies-are-hardest-hit

SparklyGrandma

Women do need to be examined thoroughly at antenatal clinics to ascertain that they are actually pregnant, can give birth naturally, amongst other things, and to ascertain the size, position and growth of the fetus/baby in the womb etc.

Women don't need to remove their underclothes for most of those procedures

oodles

Another factor that worries me is the lack of support after a mum gets home from hospital, back when I had my babies you had midwife visits for 10 days, now nothing like that, mums have to go out to clinics which is all well and good if you have access to a car or can afford a taxi, but expecting a mum to go out after a c section when she should be home recovering and establishing feeding.If you can't you have to fight for a visit.
And if a mum cant addo rd to feed hereditary won't be able to buy formula, thankfully mums even when poorly no He used can produce enough mil!, fh e.g. may need to feed mode often , but her body prioritised the baby

Ahem! I suspect that's been the case for a long time. My daughter was born in 1992 and I had one post-birth visit. Nobody visited me after my son was born in 1997. Both births were C sections. I was discharged the day after birth when my son was born.

Women do need to be examined thoroughly at antenatal clinics to ascertain that they are actually pregnant, can give birth naturally, amongst other things, and to ascertain the size, position and growth of the fetus/baby in the womb etc.

Why do I keep reading that child benefit is capped at two children.
It isn't. Child benefit is paid for all children.
The benefit that is capped is the rising of universal benefit over the 2nd child limit.
Universal benefit used to be paid per head in a family but now only includes 2 children.
Child benefit is not affected.

Another factor that worries me is the lack of support after a mum gets home from hospital, back when I had my babies you had midwife visits for 10 days, now nothing like that, mums have to go out to clinics which is all well and good if you have access to a car or can afford a taxi, but expecting a mum to go out after a c section when she should be home recovering and establishing feeding.If you can't you have to fight for a visit.
And if a mum cant addo rd to feed hereditary won't be able to buy formula, thankfully mums even when poorly no He used can produce enough mil!, fh e.g. may need to feed mode often , but her body prioritised the baby

Ashcombe

*growstuff*: I imagine that removal of lower garments would be necessary in order for a scan to be conducted or the bump measured to check that growth was in line with the number of weeks of the pregnancy.

I never had to remove my lower garments for scans or measurements. Pull down to give access to the bump but never below that.
Obesity and smokingg being risk factors, it is very rare for women of Pakistani heritage ( or Indian or Bengali) to smoke or drink unlike many British women, obesity doesn't seem to be a problem amongst children of childbearing years either
What the article says is that areas of deprivation have 3 times the rate against the least deprived. That's a big difference.

Thanks Wyllow. I trained as a HV after midwifery, and it saddens me to see the decline in HVs along with midwives and nurses in primary care, where I was an integral part of my local team.
Other stats such as the increase in particularly under one’s but also under four year olds attending A&E in the last 10 years is startling. Many apparently not found to be ill, but mainly there for reassurance.