New maternity clinic for rape victims opens

The UK’s first maternity clinic for rape survivors has opened to help women deal with the trauma that pregnancy and childbirth can trigger.

Based at the Royal London Hospital, it will provide specialist gynaecological exams and mental health support, with specially trained midwives, psychologists and paediatricians.

Women will be able to self-refer to the unit, says Pavan Amara, founder of the My Body Back project, which worked with Barts Health NHS Trust to set up the clinic.

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“They don’t have to say what happened, although they can if they want to,” she told BBC News. “We will then book them an appointment and take it from there.”

Writing on The Independent, Ms Amara, who was raped as a teenager, described meeting a woman last year for whom giving birth had been a devastating experience.

“She began remembering and reliving the rape that she thought she had left behind many years before.”

Another victim, “Melanie”, recalled how nobody had been able to help her when she started hallucinating during childbirth, seeing the man who had attacked her in the room. “I was terrified and screaming,” she said.

The important thing for women who have been sexually assaulted is that they feel in control, according to Inderjeet Kaur, a consultant midwife at the Royal London.

“This will promote confidence and trust so they can be open with their midwife to ensure that their experience will not trigger painful memories,’ she told the Evening Standard.