Better start for new borns

The National Children`s Bureau tells us that it is a leading charity that has been improving the lives of children and young people, especially the most vulnerable, for fifty years. It does this by working with children and young people to influence government policy. (Yes, it is another important stakeholder, invited to all those meetings with the Government, that the rest of us do not hear about.)

http://wamc.org/post/first-lady-eleanor-roosevelt-declaration-human-rights-speech-dr-allida-black

It quotes Eleanor Roosevelt, speaking about the driving force behind the human rights blueprint which recognises that human rights begin:

"in small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends . . . Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. "

And it quotes Article 24 of the UNCRC which commits the UK Government to strive to ensure that no child is deprived of their right access to health services. NCB goes on to admit that despite improvements in recent decades, the UK has one of the worst child mortality rates in Western Europe.

The joint report from NCB and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Why Children Die, underlines that the first year accounts for most child mortality. As in most high-income countries, the majority of infant deaths occur in the neonatal period (up to 27 days after birth) and in the countries of the UK they account for around 70% of infant deaths, except in Northern Ireland where they account for nearly 80%.

"But we need to be more ambitious so that newborns and their families have the support they need across a wider range of services. NCB, through the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP), is leading one of five Better Start sites across England, working with parents and the statutory and voluntary sector to radically change the way agencies and services work with pregnant mothers, fathers, babies, their families and communities. In the longer term, Government must take responsibility for supporting the most effective multi-agency practice."

http://blog.ncb.org.uk/post/human-rights-close-to-home-children-s-rights-to-healthcare-in-england 

The National Children`s Bureau does not mention another statistic and that is that new figures show that British women spend the least time in hospital after giving birth than in any other European country. One mother is reported to have been expected to leave hospital six hours after an exhausting birth.and without the opportunity to focus her energy on forming a bond with her baby. Since attachment theory is an important mantra in the prevention and early intervention paradigm, it is a strange omission. But maybe that is because it does not quite fit the bill to get into those "small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world." (i.e. those small places that are more about state interference than services)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother-tongue/11319166/British-woman-I-was-told-to-leave-hospital-6-hours-post-birth.html