‘Women feel like failures if they haven’t had a “normal” birth’: how the NCT has shaped childbirth in the UK

Fiona Winser-Ramm of the Maternity Safety Alliance, a group of bereaved families campaigning for a public inquiry into maternity services, saw the tweet that night and says she “felt like screaming” with rage. In 2019, Winser-Ramm, a teacher and safeguarding officer, attended NCT classes while pregnant with her first child, Aliona. Aliona died on New Year’s Day 2020 due to neglectful care at her birth. Staff at Leeds General Infirmary didn’t act when there was meconium (a baby’s first faeces) in Winser-Ramm’s waters, nor when Aliona’s foetal monitor showed she was in distress, nor when Winser-Ramm and her husband repeatedly expressed concerns about how her labour was progressing.