SIS regularly provides interpreting for mothers attending maternity appointments. The absence of an interpreter within this pathway risk the mother not understanding the care being offered, increases risk of uninformed, unconsented care as women go through pregnancy and birth, and can have far reaching consequences where such provision is not offered consistently. We heard from one SIS Service User who spoke of the harrowing, and emotional impact on her arising from such a failure.
“I used SIS a lot during my pregnancy. The way maternity services work here is quite different to in my country. There, you go straight to an obstetrician who sees you all the way through your pregnancy, and you have scans every month. I’d heard negative stories about giving birth in the UK, so was very scared. During my pregnancy, I was completely alone, so grateful to all the interpreters who attended. Without them, I simply would not have been able to explain myself. They highlighted how things work, how the systems work and guided, giving information, and answering questions like ‘is she going to be there at my birth?’ All these little questions were so important as I was feeling vulnerable.
After I had my baby, the midwife didn’t bring an interpreter. This resulted in a very traumatic experience for me. When the midwife first came, I told her about a bruise on my babies’ arm. She said she’d write it down and keep a record. Two days later, I had another midwife (again, with no interpreter), and I mentioned this again. She then rang me late at night and said I needed to take my baby straight to the hospital. I was recovering from a caesarean so asked for the doctor to come see me, or I could take the baby to the GP next day.
I had no idea initially what was happening, and didn’t really understand just how serious the situation was. The next thing I had was Police knocking on my door and taking us to the children’s hospital. On that first night, I had a 2-hour telephone interpreting call with a doctor who wasn’t very sympathetic. I explained there was a photo of my baby taken just after the birth (by the interpreter who attended my caesarean) showing the faint bruise (which was likely a birth mark). The doctor said, ‘it doesn’t mean anything to me and it’s not same thing.”
Next thing – they called children’s services, and I ended up being admitted overnight. The following day I had a SIS interpreter attend F2F. She could see I was distraught as my baby had 10 prick marks on her little hand where they had tried to get blood. I was finally able to explain everything, and when the paediatric consultant then reviewed, she understood the situation fully and discharged me.
I felt I was pushed by the midwife to be without an interpreter when she first came, and initially agreed thinking – it’ll be okay, it’s in my house, it’s a safe place, they’ll just weigh baby. If I’d had an interpreter from the beginning it would have been different. After that horrible experience I now refuse to go to see any doctor without an interpreter .”
She further commented “SIS interpreters are now like family to me”!
We are grateful to the Service User for trusting SIS and sharing her story with us, and happy that our service was able to help.
We couldn’t be prouder of our Linguists!