Giving Birth In A High-Intervention System with Guests Sheena Byrom OBE and Professor Soo Downe

Intervention rates have climbed so fast in UK maternity care that it is hard not to ask a blunt question: is all this doing what it promised to do? I sit down with Sheena Byrom, OBE and Professor Soo Downe to explore what has changed over the last decade, why fear now feels baked into the system, and how a laser-focus on a narrow set of outcomes can quietly create new harms such as birth trauma, postpartum haemorrhage, and worsening postnatal mental health. Stillbirth rates have fallen a little, but not at the rate targets suggest, certainly not in line with the rise in interventions and maternal mortality is rising. How many lives are being saved overall? And at what cost? Have we ever considered this conversation not from the perspective of proving the sometimes unnecessary harm caused by interventions, but by highlight the very real benefits provided by physiology? What if, instead of focussing on the problems, scratching our heads about how to reinvent the week, we looked for our solutions in examples of great care that already exist? And what can you do, as an individual stepping into a system that seems to hold so much power over our experiences, to take back control and put yourself back at the centre of your birth? If you want a calmer, more informed path through pregnancy and birth, hit subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a five-star review so more parents can find these conversations. Sign up to The Birth-ed Method Support the show