Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 15 June 2021
I, too, am grateful for the opportunity to take part in the debate and to help to bring women’s health issues in from the sidelines.
Many of us scoffed when news broke in 2016 about trials of male contraceptive pills being called to a halt. They ran aground because the participants were experiencing headaches, mood swings and weight gain—all of which are symptoms that are well known in the female experience of contraception.
However, that point is worth more than just a roll of the eyes, because it clearly shows the inequality that is at the heart of the debate. To this day, there is a mainstream expectation that there are levels of pain and discomfort that women should just live with. Risks are excused or normalised for women, while simultaneously being regarded as being too much for the population at large.
Women consistently report the experience of not being listened to in healthcare settings. As Engender said recently, they
“wait longer for pain medication than men, wait longer to be diagnosed, are more likely to have their physical symptoms ascribed to mental health issues, are more likely to have their heart disease misdiagnosed or to become disabled after a stroke, and are more likely to suffer illnesses ignored or denied by the medical profession.”
A huge amount of work needs to be done to rectify the situation. The women’s health plan will be a start. However, it has taken a long time to get the conversation started, so we should not underestimate the effort that it will take to effect real change.
The determined campaign that mesh survivors ran is a testament to that. Those women’s experiences of botched treatment are nothing short of a public health catastrophe, but the response from the Government has been slow. Their asks should not be up for debate; we need to do whatever it takes for those women. There should be funding for removal surgery, so that women have a choice about where it is done and by whom. There should be a patient safety commissioner and there should be a statutory ban on mesh, so that such things never happen again.
My amendment, which was not selected for debate, raised the question of dedicated facilities for perinatal loss. Louise Caldwell has campaigned bravely on the issue. She was required to deliver on a labour ward after being told, at her 12-week scan, that there was no heartbeat. She said:
“As soon as you enter the labour ward you are met with newborn baby photos on walls, thank you cards, baby cries and proud partners.”
It is difficult to imagine how hard that must be. Official guidance says that separate facilities should be provided, but as Louise’s experience shows, recognition of the issue does not always translate into reality. There needs to be a standard of care for perinatal loss that is equivalent to that which is provided to patients who are undergoing labour and delivery.
Perinatal mental health, too, needs to be brought to the forefront of the women’s health plan. A 2018 report showed that Glasgow was the only place in the whole of Scotland that was meeting perinatal mental health requirements. Mothers in half of Scotland could not access specialist services—years after another report had warned of significant gaps.
I hope that, in her closing remarks, the minister will address the issue and commit to making perinatal health and mental health a cornerstone of the Government’s plan.