Midwife crisis: Lily Allen pleads for nurse via Twitter four days after giving birth

Midwife crisis: Lily Allen pleads for nurse via Twitter four days after giving birth

12 Jan 2013 22:00

New mums are supposed to be visited in the first few days after they have a baby

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WENN

Lily Allen was forced to take to Twitter four days after giving birth because midwives failed to turn up at her home.

New mums are supposed to be visited by a nurse in the first few days after they give birth.

However Lily desperately tried to contact her midwife and resorted to Twitter when she got no response.

It comes as shortages in midwife services have led to problems for patients up and down the country.

And top politicians have claimed that cuts in nursing staff could have disastrous consequences for patient care.

Pop star Lily, 27, gave birth to baby girl Marnie Rose Cooper at a hospital on Tuesday.

She was discharged the following day and was unable to contact her nurse three days later.

She told her 3,942,997 followers on Twitter: “Hi there, can’t seem to find out which hospitals community midwifery team are coming to see me. Discharged weds morning !!!!”

Then, when no-one responded to her, she added: “I’ m starting to worry now, and no-one answers the phone, or if they do, I just keep getting passed around. Let me know if you can.”

According to NHS Direct, when someone leaves hospital they should be provided with the contact details of the midwife.

If the community nurse does not arrive then they should contact the hospital to inform them and seek further information from them.

Labour’s Baroness Warwick of Undercliffe has told how cuts in nursing staff could have ‘disastrous consequences’ for patient care.

She said: “Frontline nursing care is being severely threatened by the £20 billion efficiency savings target set for the NHS.”

Last year RCM said England is short of 5,000 full-time equivalent midwives. An RCM poll of more than 2,000 midwives found 89 per cent did not feel able to give women enough care.

But there has been a huge rise in the number of women wanting to go into the profession in the wake of BBC1 show Call The M idwife, starring Miranda Hart.

Call The Midwife with Miranda Hart

BBC

 

This is not the first time Lily has taken to Twitter to target both personal and public health issues.

In October, following Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s comments that he would like to see a ban on terminations more than 12 weeks into a pregnancy, she stuck up for women who chose to have abortions.

Lily, who has suffered two miscarriages, said: “Can small minded idiot blokes stop telling women whether or not they’re entitled to abortions please? #enoughnow.”

The outspoken singer also slammed tax avoiders and pointed out that the money should be used to fund public services such as the NHS and transport systems.

In June she wrote: “Taxes don’t just go towards the benefit system. There are roads to build, a health service to run it’s endless.”

And she added: “Wow some of the arguments re #taxavoidance are actually really upsetting to read. I can’t believe how people justify that to themselves.

“And quite a majorit y. I’m quite ashamed to be honest.”

Lily was pregnant with Ethel â€" now 14 months â€" when she and building firm boss Sam, 34, wed in Cranham, Gloucs, in June 2011.

The previous October she lost a baby son with Sam when she was six months pregnant. Prior to that she had a miscarriage when she was dating Ed Simons of the Chemical Brothers in 2008.