Midwifery research helps ensure women benefit from evidence based, respectful care

However, it can also provide a salutary reminder of how far we still have to go to ensure that all women can reap the benefits of evidence-based, respectful care. This year, as the world faces the challenge of a pandemic that is devastating many communities, the focus is rightly on the crucial work that is happening across all sectors to bring COVID-19 under control and protect the most vulnerable in society. But it is also important that we do not forget the challenges many face day-to-day, whatever else is happening.

One in five women across the globe have experienced childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The mental and physical effects can be far reaching and lifelong. For many of these women, having a baby is not anticipated with joy and expectation, but with fear of judgement, anxiety as to whether their bodies will let them down and concern about the prospect of becoming a mother.

Pregnancy can therefore be a lonely time for these women whose experiences are very isolating.

To address some of these issues a team at King’s, in collaboration with The Survivors Trust (TST) and those with lived experience of childhood sexual abuse, co-produced an on-line resource to support women as they contemplate Pregnancy, Birth and Parenthood after CSA. Hosted on TST website, this resource can be accessed wherever women feel safe, on computers or mobile phones. It takes them through the journey from pregnancy to becoming a parent. This is an interactive resource in which women have control over what they see and the order in which they see it. Links are provided to information that any pregnant woman wants to know but there is also opportunity to hear from women who know what it is like to have a baby after CSA.

Midwives are likely to encounter women who have experienced CSA every day in maternity services but may not realise it. The resource provides them with insight into what compassionate care may mean for these women.