Yvette Cooper’s Maternity Reforms Must Change a System That Too Often Fails Women

On the third day of being in labour with my first child, I entered a new state of being. It was time to dig deep. This is what I had learned in all the childbirth classes.

As long as I remained calm, breathed as instructed, moaned through the pain, things would happen as they were meant. My body knew what it was doing. On the fourth day, I started to beg.

Despite contraction after relentless contraction, I wasn’t dilating. I hadn’t slept, I couldn’t even sit down. And still, they waited.

For what, I never understood. Natalie Morris is the author of Mixed/Other: Explorations of Multiraciality in Modern Britain. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.