A report, filed this Tuesday, February 28 at the Academy of Medicine, recommends no longer giving birth in a hundred small maternity hospitals in France. For experts, in these structures the safety of pregnant women and unborn children is in danger.
This Tuesday, February 28, a shock report was presented to the Academy of Medicine. Professor Yves Ville, head of the gynecology-obstetrics department at Necker Hospital in Paris, and 14 other specialists who initiated the report, recommend put an end to childbirth in 100 small maternities in Francefound The Parisian this Wednesday, March 1. According to experts, “We must bring together 100 maternity units in France in the name of the safety of the mother and the child. If we do not do this, we are heading for disaster”, explains Yves Ville. The structures, which are pointed out, are those which make less than 1,000 births per year and which take care of pregnancies without risk.
Small maternities deemed “dangerous” for childbirth
Over the years, giving birth in small maternities would have become dangerousdue in particular to a lack of caregivers. “There are fewer deliveries there, you lose experience, which is dangerous. To continue to turn, they appeal to temporary workers. This organization in the form of patches does not ensure the safety and quality of care. (…) We can no longer continue to give birth there”, points out Professor Yves Ville. Moreover, today more and more pregnant women decide to go to large maternities, more secure, but which are the opposite “saturated” and in which working conditions have also deteriorateddetails the report. These large structures are sometimes even nicknamed the “baby factories”. On the other hand, the idea of the experts is not to close the small maternities on the contrary. “The follow-up before and after pregnancy would still be provided there, but the women would no longer give birth there”, says Yves Ville.
Putting more resources into large maternities
The solution of Professor Yves Ville and his colleagues? Put more resources in emergency in large maternities. Thus, future mothers will be able to have a more personalized pregnancy follow-up and a more secure childbirth, adapted to their birth plan. According to our colleagues from Parisian, these large maternities which lack means are 59 in number. They are in Laon, Montluçon, Antibes-Juan les Pins, Auch or even at the Dax Hospital Center.
A report that divides professionals
This report is far from unanimous, especially among health professionals who work in these so-called local maternity wards. “We are completely against it! It is a terrible anguish for women to give birth away from home“, chants Michèle Leflon, president of the national coordination of the defense committees of local hospitals and maternity wards. An opinion shared by many future mothers. Some are attached to giving birth close to home, while for others the proximity of the maternity ward to their home means a certain security.
For specialist Yves Villes, “the adoption of an ambitious perinatal plan is an emergency and a public health priority.” As a reminder, maternity hospitals in France have been in crisis for several years. On our territory, in 20 years, more than 30% of maternity wards have had to close.