12/11/2025
๐ฃPlease share : ๐ฃAn Open Letter on Birth: In Defence of Midwives, Mothers, and the Truth From: Midwives, Doulas, and Educators across the UK (written by The Peopleโs Birth Tribunal)
To: Parents, Professionals, Politicians, and the Press:This open letter has been written and signed by midwives, doulas, and educators working across the United Kingdom.
Together, we represent those who stand beside women and families through pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal period - the people who have witnessed both the miracles and the failings of our maternity system firsthand.We are speaking out because the public conversation about birth in the UK has become dangerously distorted. Misleading headlines, sensational stories, and selective statistics have created a culture of fear - fear of birth, fear of accountability, and fear of trusting women, birthing people and midwives.
It is time to set the record straight: Maternity care must prioritise the health and well-being of the whole family, ensuring good mental, physical and emotional health and protecting reproductive rights, thus creating a foundation upon which parents and children can thrive.Clinical safety is just as important: preventing mortality and severe morbidity is, of course, crucial in high quality maternity care. However, prioritising clinical, risk-focussed management over holistic, community and relationship-based care can, and does, introduce other dangers to the well-being of the whole family, both in the short and long terms.
We write as midwives, doulas, educators, and advocates for families - united by our terror for the future of birth in the UK.We have watched with growing alarm as midwives and the concept of โnormal birthโ have been scapegoated for the failings of a broken maternity system. ๐ฃ To read the rest of this important letter and to add your signature please visit this site: https://openletter.earth/an-open-letter-on-birth-in-defence-of-midwives-mothers-and-the-truth-b6b91d96