Former Conservative MP Theo Clarke has revealed she "thought she was going to die" during a traumatic birth experience that led to her campaigning for improved maternity care.
In an interview with GB News, Clarke criticised the Government for its lack of progress in implementing recommendations from the Birth Trauma Inquiry she chaired last year.
Clarke described her harrowing experience at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in 2022, where she endured a 40-hour labour followed by severe blood loss requiring emergency surgery.
Speaking on GB News, the 39-year-old ex-Stafford MP said: “During the last Parliament, I had a baby and had a very traumatic birth. I had a 40-hour labour and ended up bleeding very heavily after delivery, having a postpartum haemorrhage, and I'm afraid, got rushed into emergency surgery.
Theo Clarke shared her story with GB News
GB NEWS
“I spent nearly two hours awake on the operating table and to be honest, it was absolutely terrifying. I thought I was going to die. I thought I'd never see my daughter again. I thought my husband was going to be a single dad.
“Afterwards, when I came out, I remember being in this side room with my daughter, who I couldn't pick up, and pressing the emergency buzzer for help. Someone came in and said, ‘Not my baby, not my problem’, and walked out and left me there.
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“And it was really that experience that kind of opened my eyes to the lack of aftercare in this country for mothers, and that led me to start campaigning on improving maternity care across the UK.
“I chaired the birth trauma inquiry last year after so many mothers wrote to me after I gave my speech. I've included some of the news stories in the books; I think it's so important to hear their testimony.
“Our headline recommendation last year was to have a national maternity improvement strategy, because we didn't feel that NHS care was standardised across maternity.
“The previous Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had accepted that, he made an announcement about it in the House of Commons in response to my PMQ. But unfortunately, we're now 10 months on to the new government and we've had no major announcements on the birth trauma inquiry recommendations by the health secretary.
“So I'm very much calling on the Government today, one year on from our report, to implement those recommendations and to improve maternity care across this country."
In response, the Department of Health & Social Care said progress was being made "across a number of the recommendations from the APPG on Birth Trauma, including achieving 5.8 per cent increase in the number of midwives".
The department added that it had recently announced a rollout of a national NHS training programme to reduce brain injuries during childbirth.
The DHSC acknowledged there is more to be done, stating: "Through our Plan for Change, we are transforming the NHS, training thousands more midwives and have set an explicit target to close the black and Asian maternal mortality gap."
Clarke described her harrowing experience at the Royal Stoke University Hospital in 2022, where she endured a 40-hour labour (file photo)
PAClarke has made it clear she will continue her campaign despite losing her parliamentary seat in the 2024 General Election.
She told the BBC: "[The Government] appear to have been under the misapprehension that I would disappear when I lost my seat - that is not going to happen."
After leaving Parliament, Clarke launched a podcast on birth trauma, interviewing campaigners and women with similar experiences.
