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Birthrights

@birthrightsorg

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Birthrights is the leading authority on the human rights of women & birthing people during pregnancy & birth in the UK.
👇🏾 Advice, training & more.

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🚨 Our new report, 'End Coercion in Maternity Care in the UK' is now live 🔗: www.bit.ly/ENDcoercion

Coercion has no place in maternity care.
Yet in 2025, more than 1 in 5 people supported by our advice and information service reported experiences of coercion.

We heard from nearly 300 people who shared their experiences of coercion: whether directly as the pregnant person affected, or those who witnessed coercion from colleagues or others within the system.

Their experiences reveal patterns of behaviour that compromise informed consent, bodily autonomy, and trust in care.

Our findings also show how structural racism and discrimination, alongside widespread coercive practices, inappropriate referrals, and a culture of fear among maternity care professionals, continue to undermine safe, rights-respecting care.

➡️ What needs to change?
Join our live webinar today (5.30–7pm) to explore the key findings, hear from maternity care experts, and be part of this important conversation to drive change: www.bit.ly/BRwebi 📣

#maternitycare #humanrights #birthjustice by @birthrightsorg

📣It's here 📣

Our report Access Denied – The Reality of Home Birth Restrictions in the UK is available to download on our website at bit.ly/hbirth, where you’ll also find useful information about your rights.

66% of Trusts in the UK restricted or suspended their home birth services between October 2023 and November 2024, according to our investigation.

This shortage leaves women and birthing people who want a home birth feeling like they only have two choices: opt for an undesired hospital birth or give birth at home unassisted and without midwifery care.

And as ever, minoritised or marginalised communities are being disproportionately impacted.

It shouldn’t be this way. Home birth should be widely available and accessible across the UK alongside other core birth settings.

That’s why we’re calling on the Government to take urgent action to safeguard home birth services and introduce a new SAFE Maternity Care Act to make crystal clear how human rights law applies to all those who manage, deliver and regulate maternity care and ensure Safety, Accountability, Freedom of Choice and Equity are at the core of the maternity system.

Your Body, Your Birth, Your Rights by @birthrightsorg

▶️Are you a birth worker, doula, childbirth educator, or a peer supporter working in the maternity sector to support women and birthing people?

✔️Do you want to learn more about the rights of women and birthing people during pregnancy and birth? If so, join our online training session on December 11th!: https://bit.ly/br11Dec

🩷 This new online session: “Human Rights in Maternity Care: helping others navigate the system” will provide an introduction to human rights law and principles and why they matter in pregnancy and childbirth.
By the end of the session, you’ll be able to answer questions such as:

- What is ‘informed consent’ and what does it look like?
- How can human rights support us to advocate for safe and personalised care?
- How can we use human rights to challenge embedded and harmful ways of practice?

📲 Find out more & book by following the link in our bio.

#birthworker #doula #childbirtheducator #peersupporter #maternity #birthrights by @birthrightsorg

There’s still time to apply!📣
Birthrights is hiring a Community Organiser and applications close this coming Wednesday, 4 November.

Missed our information webinar? You can now watch the full recording to learn more about this role and download the full job pack, with job description and details of how to apply, at 🔗bit.ly/birthjob

Please share widely with anyone in your networks who you think would be a great fit.

#Hiring #CharityJobs #MaternityCare #CommunityOrganising by @birthrightsorg

“Anti-racism requires us to continually ask ourselves difficult questions about how we work, whose knowledge we value, who gets heard and whose experiences are absent.”

In September, the Birthrights team came together in York for an away day focused on living out our anti-racism value.

We reflected on how individual and collective power shapes our work, and explored where we have opportunities to challenge and redistribute power in maternity care.

Read our full reflections from the day here (link in bio) 👉 www.bit.ly/awayBR

#maternitycare #antiracism #humanrights by @birthrightsorg

Across the country, birth centres and home birth services are being restricted, suspended or closed - denying people meaningful choice.

@birthrightsorg Access Denied report showed that 66% of NHS trusts have limited or paused home birth services, and found these restrictions disproportionately impacting black and brown and people from marginalised groups.

Under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act, women and birthing people have a legal right to choose where and how they give birth

A national failure to provide widely available and accessible home birth services demonstrates a disregard for women’s right to make decisions about their bodies and care

#maternityrights #homebirths #womensright #maternity

https://birthrights.org.uk/campaigns-research/home-birth-restrictions/ by @birthrightsorg

We are so grateful to everyone who has donated to us so far but we have just 4 hours left (until noon) to raise another £1268 which will be match funded by Big Give until we reach our overall target of £7500. Every £1 you donate will be doubled. That means your support goes twice as far in helping us champion respectful, human rights-based care for women and birthing people. Please give if you can – together, we can make twice the difference. 💜✨ https://donate.biggive.org/charity/0011r00002HoevDAAR

Image a baby blanket knitted for us by Catriona at House of Nairn. by @birthrightsorg

In 2025, our advice line supported nearly 500 women and birthing people with trauma-informed, personalised human rights advice and information.

Swipe through to read, in their own words, what that support means to Birthrights' service users.

If you have ever thought about supporting our vital work, now is the time. Until midday on Tuesday 13 October, every donation you make to Birthrights goes TWICE as far through the Big Give Women and Girls Match Fund. One donation, twice the good.

We are so grateful to everyone who has already helped us raise £1,576 towards our £3,750 target. Thank you! If you haven’t had time yet, there are less than 4 days left to double your impact. Can we count on your support?

Your generosity will help us support more women and birthing people across the UK, and keep championing human rights in maternity care so that safe, respectful care becomes a reality for ALL.

👉 Donate today: bit.ly/GiveBR
🔁 Please share and repost. You could help us reach someone whose donation will be doubled too. Together, we can do more to end human rights violations in maternity care.

#BigGive #WGMF #MaternityCare #HumanRights #BirthJustice by @birthrightsorg

⏰ Match funding starts in less than 1 hour!

For one week only, from 12pm (noon) today until midday on Tuesday 13 October, every donation to Birthrights will be DOUBLED through the Big Give Women and Girls Match Fund. One donation, double the difference.

Too many pregnant women and birthing people across the UK still have their human rights dismissed, ignored and violated. Maternal deaths are rising, and Black, Brown and minoritised women and birthing people face the greatest risks and the worst outcomes.

Demand for our support has never been greater. Will you help us reach our £3,750 target? Your donation will help us:
✅ give personalised, rights-based information, advice and support to more women and birthing people
✅ train more healthcare professionals to provide rights-respecting care
✅ campaign for change in maternity care and hold institutions to account

Donate from 12pm: www.bit.ly/GiveBR

🔁 Please share widely. Together, we can put respect for human rights at the heart of ALL maternity services.

#BigGive #WGMF #MaternityCare #HumanRights by @birthrightsorg

When you are pregnant, giving birth or receiving postnatal care, 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀. Yet too many women and birthing people across the UK still have their rights dismissed, ignored and violated.

Maternal deaths are rising, and Black, Brown and minoritised women and birthing people continue to face worse outcomes and the greatest risk of human rights violations in maternity care.

Our maternity services are in crisis, and demand for Birthrights' support has never been greater.

If you have ever thought about supporting our vital work, now is the time. Between the 6–13 October, every donation you make to Birthrights will be DOUBLED through our match funder. For one week only, your donation will have TWICE the impact.

Will you help us reach our £3,750 target? Your support will allow Birthrights to:
→ Provide rights-based information, advice and support to more women and birthing people
→ Reach more healthcare professionals with our training on rights-respecting care
→ Campaign for systemic change and hold institutions to account

📅 Mark your calendars and please share our campaign page widely: www.bit.ly/GiveBR

Together, we can put respect for human rights at the heart of all maternity services.

#BigGive #WomenAndGirlsMatchFund #HumanRights #MaternityCare by @birthrightsorg

📣 Birthrights is hiring a Community Organiser ✊

As our Community Organiser, you'll work alongside our Policy and Campaigns Manager to support the development of Communities Imagine. You will listen to and engage creatively with communities to identify insights and co create priorities for wider systems change in maternity care.

📍 Remote (UK-based, within 4 hours' train of London)
💷 £33,000 FTE pro rata
⏰ Apply by 12pm (noon), Wednesday 4 November

Want to find out more? Join our webinar on Tuesday 20 October to learn more about this role (more details to come).

For the full job pack and details of how to apply, go to: 🔗 www.bit.ly/birthjob

Please share with anyone in your network who could be a great fit.

#hiring #maternitycare #humanrights by @birthrightsorg

Thank you so much to the BBC for covering our campaign yesterday to stop the suspension of the Homerton homebirth team.

It’s a bit of a shame they cut out two parents directly affected by the suspensions.

@the_birth_advocate also had alot more to say about institutional racism within the NHS, adverse maternal & fetal outcomes in hospital and homebirth team “suspensions” that become closures around the U.K but there was a very important story about traffic in Brent Cross increasing someone’s commute by 15 minutes so….

It’s only women’s rights afterall, Keep it light!

#bbc #bbcnews @homerton.maternity @homebirth_homerton

More photos to follow…. by @birthrightsorg