\n<\/p>\n
J<\/span>ulie Hammond, a 35-year-old mother of three from Kent, believes that the \u201cexcruciating\u201d pain she experienced during the birth of her second child was not well managed by the medical professionals caring for her.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to put into words just how traumatic it was,\u201d Hammond says. \u201cI could just feel myself panicking throughout the whole procedure, while also trying to tell myself to calm down.\u201d<\/p>\n Following a difficult vaginal birth for her first child, Hammond had decided to have an elective caesarean for her second. But due to complications, her son was delivered by emergency caesarean at 35 weeks.<\/p>\n Hammond was administered a spinal block, but remembers that at the time, she was still able to move her legs. \u201cI mentioned this to my anaesthetist at the time, who told me not to worry, and just to relax,\u201d Hammond says. \u201cI definitely felt like I was being dismissed.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite Hammond raising the alarm that her anaesthetic hadn\u2019t worked properly and she could still feel her legs and abdomen, no changes were made to the amount of anaesthetic she received.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t describe how painful it was, and what a feeling it was to feel exactly everything that was happening,\u201d Hammond says. \u201cI could feel someone cutting through each layer of my skin, fat, and muscle, and I could feel when they\u2019re manipulating my body [to get to the baby], because they\u2019re pulling your muscles apart. I could literally feel every single part of what was happening to me.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/span>Julie Hammond: \u2018I thought it can\u2019t be racism \u2026 and told myself I was just unlucky.\u2019<\/span> Photograph: Jill Mead\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Hammond\u2019s experience of having her pain dismissed during childbirth is not as unusual as it should be. A Guardian investigation has found that women from minority ethnic backgrounds are less likely to receive adequate pain relief during labour compared with their white counterparts, building on a growing body of evidence that shows an \u201cethnicity pain gap\u201d in how pain experienced by people of colour is minimised and left untreated.<\/p>\n Although Hammond knew at the time that something had gone wrong with her pain relief, it wasn\u2019t until she had another caesarean for her third child that she fully understood the extent to which her experience had not been normal. \u201cWith my most recent pregnancy, I told the consultant about what happened [during my last caesarean] and she confirmed to me that it wasn\u2019t a normal experience and should not have happened at all.\u201d<\/p>\n On reflection, Hammond believes that her ethnicity was a factor in her being made to feel that she was exaggerating the pain. She had not thought this to be possible at first, as the medical professional treating her was also a person of colour.<\/p>\n \u201cMy anaesthetist was an ethnic minority, too, so at the time when I had my experience, I thought it can\u2019t be racism because I was treated by another doctor, and told myself I was just unlucky,\u201d Hammond says.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was only later on that I realised, even regardless of your skin colour, even if you\u2019re from a global majority background, you can still internalise systemic racism. We are all taught this Eurocentric idea of how pain manifests.\u201d<\/p>\n A 2016 study found that a substantial number of medical students and residents held false beliefs about biological differences between black and white people, beliefs that predict racial bias in pain perception and treatment recommendation accuracy.<\/p>\n Laypeople and medical staff were both found to hold beliefs such as \u201cBlack people\u2019s skin is thicker than white people\u2019s skin\u201d or that \u201cBlack people\u2019s nerve endings are less sensitive than white people\u2019s\u201d. People who held more false beliefs consistently rated black patients\u2019 pain as lower than white patients\u2019 pain, the study also found.<\/p>\n Adewole Adamson, associate professor at Dell medical school at the University of Texas, said: \u201cThere has been progress in awareness which is commendable. However, the recent research points to the fact that the gap still persists and is slow to close.<\/p>\n \u201cStudies have revealed that even standardising pain management assessments does not lead to equal treatment for people from different ethnicities.\u201d A 2023 study revealed that even when a standardised treatment plan for addressing postpartum pain, aimed at reducing overall postpartum opioid use, was introduced, it did not eliminate ethnic disparities in how this pain was managed.<\/p>\n Gabriella Sarpong, a 39-year-old public health professional from Ilford, also feels that the pain she experienced during her labour in 2023 was repeatedly dismissed by healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n Sarpong, who was in labour for 16 hours, had to be induced. When the medical professionals explained what types of pain relief would be available to her, she decided to have an epidural. It was when the anaesthetist began attempting to administer the epidural that Sarpong became concerned.<\/p>\n \u201cHe kept asking me lots of questions, such as: \u2018Do you think it\u2019s in the right place,\u2019\u201d Sarpong says. \u201cI remember thinking: if you\u2019re an anaesthetist and you\u2019re putting something in my back, how am I supposed to know? I remember looking at my husband, who looked so worried despite trying to remain composed.\u201d<\/p>\n For some reason that remains unclear to Sarpong, the epidural failed, leaving her in \u201cimmense\u201d pain.<\/p>\n \u201cI was expressing that the epidural was not working but I wasn\u2019t being taken seriously,\u201d Sarpong says. \u201cI was in horrendous pain \u2026 I remember the [anaesthetist] coming in and saying: you\u2019re going to have to wait until the morning [to have it sorted], and I was left like that for 10 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n As a result, Sarpong was left without adequate pain relief throughout the whole night, and due to the failure of the epidural she wasn\u2019t able to sleep or rest. \u201cI was just in constant pain. Staff were coming in and out but nothing was done.\u201d<\/p>\n Sarpong, who was diagnosed with PTSD as a result of her experience, feels that being from a minority background was a contributing factor in her pain not being taken seriously. \u201cI felt ignored and it was honestly the worst thing I\u2019ve ever experienced,\u201d Sarpong said. \u201cI know that black women face worse outcomes when it comes to maternity care, so to experience that first-hand was really scary.\u201d<\/p>\n Chinasa Ezugha, 35, an arts professor from London, gave birth to her third child in 2025. \u201cI was in a lot of pain, but I felt prepared and had an understanding of what pain medication was available to me. I requested an epidural because I understood that my labour was progressing really quickly,\u201d Ezugha said.<\/p>\n <\/span>Chinasa Ezugha, 35, had a traumatic experience giving birth to her son Malkiel.<\/span> Photograph: Fabio De Paola\/The Guardian<\/p>\n Despite having the right to ask for an epidural, Ezugha was denied one. Instead, the midwife kept telling her: \u201cYou don\u2019t need it, you\u2019re doing well without it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was so condescending; I was in so much agony,\u201d Ezugha said. \u201cI felt humiliated because I was screaming, and I was in so much pain. I can\u2019t describe to you how belittling the experience was.\u201d<\/p>\n Ezugha\u2019s negative experience during her labour was not just because of being denied the pain relief she wanted, but also due to the way her midwife interacted with her.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was in excruciating pain, she was acting standoffish and didn\u2019t even hold my hand or rub my back,\u201d Ezugha said. \u201cI remember reaching my hand out and the midwife just stood there.\u201d<\/p>\n Ezugha, who has an ongoing complaint with the hospital due to her experience, believes her ethnicity played a factor in her treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cI was already aware of the extra risks black women face during childbirth,\u201d Ezugha said. \u201cAs a black mum we\u2019re in a vulnerable position because we\u2019re dealing with all the stereotypes already. It\u2019s really important for black mothers to be heard, to be respected, and to be treated with dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n Fiona Gibb, the director of midwifery at the Royal College of Midwives, said that \u201cany suggestion that women\u2019s pain is not taken seriously, or that access to appropriate pain relief differs by ethnicity, is completely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMore consistent data collection is essential. Without robust data on pain relief, interventions and outcomes broken down by ethnicity, it is harder to identify where inequalities exist and to hold systems to account for addressing them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Julie Hammond, a 35-year-old mother of three from Kent, believes that the \u201cexcruciating\u201d pain she experienced during the birth of her second child was not well managed by the medical professionals caring for her. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult to put into words just how traumatic it was,\u201d Hammond says. \u201cI could just feel myself panicking throughout the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50896,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[14527,19889,8687,4051,335,2280,1527,2475],"class_list":{"0":"post-50895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-believed","9":"tag-epidural","10":"tag-ethnicity","11":"tag-failed","12":"tag-feel","13":"tag-gap","14":"tag-pain","15":"tag-race"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}