If you’re looking for official guidelines and research papers on particular topics, you can find them here on the References page. Read on for more information about Individual Hospital Policies.
Freedom of Information Requests
I had initially intended to submit freedom of information (FOI) requests to all the hospital trusts in the UK, and post them here. Unfortunately, that turned out to be an impossibility given the huge number of hospital trusts in the UK, the fact that policies are periodically rewritten, and the amount of free time I have to work on this site!
But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t find out this important information!
If you are pregnant and want to know as much as possible about your likely treatment (a very sensible plan) then it’s a pretty simple process. I’ve written a handy How To Submit a FOI Request For Maternity Policies here. Please, if you do this, let me know, so I can upload the policies you receive here.
Anyone has a right to request information from a public authority and they must reply to you within 20 working days.
By law they must release the information unless there is good reason not to, for example, if it is in the interests of public safety and security (unlikely in the case of hospital birthing procedures!) or they do not record that information.
See the Information Commissioner’s Office page for more info on Freedom of Information requests.
Individual Hospital Policies
I’ve collated a list of Hospital Trusts where we have copies of policies here.