I thought the (very good) short article responding to the birth trauma report (‘Maternity services in crisis – For a fully funded, fully public NHS’ in issue 1276) was missing something very important. The repeated maternity scandals and birth trauma report is not just down to the cuts – it’s also a result of deeply embedded sexism in healthcare and wider society.
Women are still routinely treated as hysterical, told that basically every medical problem they have is anxiety, etc and are denied pain relief for procedures where pain relief should be considered essential.
This attitude is particularly bad during childbirth, and it is a massive contributor to birth trauma, but it’s also something many women experience with regular health problems too. Similarly, racism is to blame for the significantly worse outcomes for black and Asian women in childbirth.
The capitalist parties might cynically use the ‘gender health gap’ to attack the NHS and justify privatisation, which we absolutely oppose. We also have to be clear that this isn’t about attacking NHS workers. Many of them are working incredibly hard in terrible conditions to keep patients safe. But they aren’t immune from sexist and racist attitudes produced by capitalism.
A fully publicly funded NHS, under democratic workers’ control, could root out racism and sexism from the NHS under trade union oversight. It could also provide patients with a means to challenge poor treatment.
Currently, women who experience this will have to battle through lengthy and complex complaints procedures, and if they’re lucky receive a short written apology. A democratically controlled NHS would mean medical professionals who repeatedly treat patients poorly would be held to account.
Mary Finch, Waltham Forest Socialist Party
