Meg is a Consultant Midwife and leads the Bagan Clinic which supports pregnant women who have given birth previously by C-section.
Throughout my pregnancy, a period where most women can feel at their most vulnerable and often feel a loss of control over how their bodies are treated. Meg was a voice of reassurance, calm and support to me, encouraging me that the decisions I was making based on the evidence I had read were correct, at a time when the majority of the medical community was, it seemed, intent on working against me by trying to push me down a different path.
Meg and her evidence-based work at UCLH are supporting so many women to make the right decisions for both their and their babies' health, but also to the benefit of the NHS at large through offering women the option of a VBAC in a calm, safe and supportive environment, providing the greatest chance of success.
I was referred to the Bagan Clinic during my second pregnancy, early in 2019. Meg listened to the story of my first pregnancy and birth (a 4.23kg boy delivered by advised C-section and together we agreed on a plan to take forward. I wanted to attempt vaginal birth if I went into labour up until a certain point in my pregnancy; beyond this point, I wished to have an elective C-section. At no point did Meg pressure me into making a decision either way or make me feel scared or doubt myself.
Over the course of my pregnancy, I started to change my mind about "the plan". I had a lot of questions for Meg and she would respond to my emails immediately with a phone call, address my questions and reassure me that I was making informed decisions. The majority of hospitals in this country will not "allow" a woman with a C-section scar to labour on a birth centre, in a pool like Meg has introduced at UCLH, or without wires attached to them for continuous monitoring, despite the latest evidence-based research and NICE guidelines supporting offering it. Meg offered me these options. Other hospitals would not, instead instructing me that my only option was to labour in the highly medicalised environment of the labour ward, which I knew may increase the risk of ending up back in surgery; something I wanted to try everything to avoid.
Meg told me UCLH has been successful in supporting VBAC women to labour on the Birth Centre for some time. She made it clear there was no "allowing" of anything; she/they could only offer me options and it was up to me to make a final decision. She gave me some control over my situation; this was in stark contrast to an appointment I had at another hospital (where I had been booked for my back up C-section which I left in tears after being made to feel that I was putting myself and my baby at risk for wanting to attempt a low-intervention labour in a birth centre.
Meg empowered me to make the decision to cancel my "back up" C-section and do everything I could to try to have a successful VBAC.
When the time finally came, I was admitted to the birth centre. The midwife-in-charge on the night knew exactly who I was. 12 hours on, Meg visited me in the middle of my labour during her morning rounds. I remember telling her, "I'm trying so hard to do it!" between contractions, and her reassuring me, "you ARE doing it!". After she'd left, the student midwife with me told me her ambition was to be a consultant like Meg.
The next day, Meg visited me on the postnatal ward, eight hours after my baby boy was born by C-section, but after having laboured for 24 hours, including in the birth pool with intermittent monitoring, and having achieved my goal of doing everything I possibly could to achieve a VBAC and minimise the risk to myself and my baby.
It meant so much to me that she'd been there to support me the whole way and checked in on me during and after the delivery of my little boy. A few weeks after the birth, she sat down with me for a de-brief and gently guided me through the record of my labour and birth, filling in all the gaps from my memory.
C-section rates are soaring in the U.K. and globally and women having multiple C-sections is becoming the norm. It's ironic that the women most at risk during labour (due to having an abdominal scar), who would most benefit from the calm environment of a birth centre, are in the majority of cases only given the option to labour in the highly medicalised (and in my opinion, frightening and stressful) environment of the labour ward.
Meg is a brave champion of women who stands up for them at their greatest time of need and is a progressive, informed, and modernising force in the NHS. It is difficult to put into words the impact Meg had on me, or how much gratitude I feel towards her for putting control back into my hands and empowering me at a time when I was feeling so vulnerable.
I wish every woman attempting VBAC would be lucky enough to experience the care and support I received from Meg and her team at UCLH. I sincerely wish that the incredible work they are doing at ULCH will be recognised and that hospitals across the country will take note and follow their lead!