Doctors and midwives around the world are railing against comments made by a top U.K. midwife that doctors are "hopeless" at childbirth.
Statements such as these only hurt both professions and damage efforts for more collaborative care, many doctors and midwives agree in the online fallout to midwife Caroline Flint's assertions.
Flint, the former president of the Royal College of Midwives and an advocate for natural birth, was reported as saying that the U.K. should, "Get rid of half the obstetricians. That money could produce zillions of midwives. Doctors are hopeless . . . at childbirth," according to an article published in the Times on Sunday.
Flint also said that doctors interfere with breastfeeding, and criticized doctors for seeing most aspects of childbirth as "dangerous."
"It is much more difficult for women to breastfeed in 2018 than it has ever been before and it seems to me [that is] because they lose so much blood at birth because their physiological processes are messed about — and that is to do with the fact that we are dominated by obstetric practice," Flint said, according to the Times.
"Midwives know women can give birth perfectly happily if they are encouraged and supported. Obstetricians ... see every part of birth as a really dangerous thing."
"Completely irresponsible"
The Doctors' Association U.K. called Flint's comments "completely irresponsible," and the professional organization wasn't the only one to speak out on the topic. Doctors and midwives around the world took to Twitter, some of them in defence of their profession, but many saying that collaboration and mutual respect are key.
In fact, the same day as the Times article was posted online, the Royal College of Midwives (RCM) and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) released a joint statement on their commitment to work together on maternity safety and positive birth outcomes.