'Ground-breaking': Rosie Duffield reviews 'Breaking the Taboo'
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3 min read
A powerful call to arms to change our approach to maternity care, Theo Clarke is to be congratulated for this candid memoir
In October 2023, the then MP for Stafford, Theo Clarke led the first ever debate on birth trauma in the House of Commons. Breaking down in tears, Theo bravely recounted her own traumatic birth and birth injury; being rushed into emergency surgery following the birth of her daughter, terrified she was going to die.
Theo’s experience is not unique. In the UK alone, an estimated 30,000 women a year suffer bad experiences during the delivery of their babies, with one in 20 developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result. The scale of this problem is huge, yet the taboo prevents us from grasping the real depth of horrors it entails.
Breaking the Taboo is her ground-breaking memoir of becoming a new mother, and a powerful call to arms for changes to the way we approach maternity care.
In part two of Breaking the Taboo, Theo charts our work together in Parliament to break the silence surrounding birth trauma and makes the case for the urgent need for a #MeToo movement to bring birth trauma into the public consciousness.
On 13 May 2024, the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Birth Trauma co-chaired by Theo and I – working with the Birth Trauma Association – published the findings of the first national inquiry into birth trauma.
This is not a book for the faint hearted, but it is an essential read for all MPs
Listen to Mums: Ending the Postcode Lottery on Perinatal Care laid bare the reality of our maternity system in the UK where poor care is all-too-frequently tolerated as normal and women are treated as an inconvenience.
The final third of Breaking the Taboo makes perhaps the most powerful case for why talking about birth trauma matters, shining a spotlight on the stories of so many people who haven’t had the recognition they deserve. In the words of Donna Ockenden, Theo “gives parents an opportunity that they were not given by the NHS – a chance to be heard”.
Since our inquiry, we have both been inundated with harrowing accounts of avoidable and preventable incidents that should not be happening in the medical settings of a G7 nation in the 21st century. It is particularly scandalous that Black and South Asian heritage women’s experiences remain so much worse – the government must work with the NHS to ensure this changes immediately.
I congratulate my dear friend on Breaking the Taboo. In articulating her own experience of birth trauma so candidly, Theo has indeed magnificently broken the taboo around birth trauma to empower mums (and dads) everywhere to talk about their own experiences.
This is not a book for the faint-hearted, but it is an essential read for all MPs. I invite all members to join me in continuing the national conversation around birth trauma in Parliament.
Rosie Duffield is Independent MP for Canterbury
Breaking the Taboo: Why we need to talk about birth trauma
By: Theo Clarke
Publisher: Biteback
