Sometimes it feels like people think the RCoA's motto is not "it is divine to alleviate pain" ('divinum sedare dolorem") but "it is divine to alleviate pain unless you're in childbirth in which case don't worry about".

My heart goes out to the women who shared their experiences for @theguardian.com It is important to understand the experiences of black women maternity care come in the context of lifetimes experiencing micro aggressions and discrimination. Harm is compounded and trust undermined further. 1/

‘Pain only she knows’ is a challenging editorial. The first author @susannastanford.bsky.social is a patient with lived experience - a voice worth listening to. Some thoughts below @anaesjournal.bsky.social associationofanaesthetists-publications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 1/N 🧵

This is an important thread from @iainmoppett.bsky.social, very much worth reading in full for his thoughts on wider implications for regional anaesthesia…

Bit late to realise that a gendered title might mean people assume this is about labour pain! In brief… Severe intra-operative pain during caesarean delivery is perceived as life threatening. It is *still* common. There are things clinicians can do to improve care. #AnSky #ObSky #PainSky

The truly baffling bit is that attitudes to labour pain seeped into attitudes towards pain during caesarean delivery. Severe intra-operative pain during delivery is perceived as life threatening. And it is still common.

"The overwhelming focus of a mother is on the safe delivery of her baby and, to that end, mothers will allow significant injury to themselves; but this does not mean they should have to." @susannastanford.bsky.social #AnSky #ObSky #MedSky #PainSky doi.org/10.1111/anae...

New Editorial in @anaesjournal.bsky.social Pain only she knows There is a persistent gap between pain experienced by patients and pain recognised by clinicians; namely, patients feel pain more often than clinicians recognise. Great to work with Tracey Vogel and Heather Nixon on this. 1/

‘Anxiety…’ This is such a deeply ingrained, cultural issue all around the world. Maybe clinicians could be trained to counter bias by asking themselves: ‘What if it’s not anxiety?’

‘It’s time we made it rare.’ I couldn’t agree more. Great to see this is being discussed at #Asm26Akl

I was taught to use 2.2ml hyperbaric 0.5% bupivacaine but now routinely use 2.4ml minimum (plus 0.3mg/0.3ml diamorphine). 👇🏻 This podcast with @susannastanford.bsky.social is a brilliant discussion around pain during LSCS, human factors, and psychological safety. www.rcoa.ac.uk/events-profe... 1/2

She was running the #spinerace for Afghan women and girls. She was pulled out because of death threats. I’ll put her fundraiser page in the next post. Let’s support if we can. www.theguardian.com/society/2026...

Same here, stopped using it in 2024, now deactivated.

For years Twitter was so helpful, putting me in contact with anaesthetists around the world, many of whom became wonderful allies. But leaving X suddenly became incredibly easy to do.

What a beautiful letter…

All those involved in #patientsafety please fill in this survey re ⁦patient safety education by HSSIB.

Not my usual sort of post but it’s not everyday I get compared to Erin Brockovich… Astute review of Susan Burton’s work in The Retrievals: open.substack.com/pub/bingewor...

Writing like it's a television drama complete with instructions for a camera operator. That's an unusual maneuver for a podcast. One I'd never heard before. Neither had Susan Burton until she wrote that way herself for #TheRetrievals from Serial and @nytimes.com. @prx.org. @transom.bsky.social.

The @nytimes.com and @serialproductions.bsky.social have released the second series of The Retrievals. It is powerful, compelling listening from Susan Burton with Julie Snyder, Ben Phelan and team. The 4 episodes are a solutions focused look at intraoperative pain during caesarean delivery. 1/

I've just listened to this series and it's both powerful and shocking - the "normalisation of deviance". But at least the situaiton appears to be changing. Well worth 3.5 hours of your life. @susannastanford.bsky.social

After Season 1 of "The Retrievals," hundreds of listeners wrote to us saying they "felt everything" during their C-sections. Season 2 investigates how this happens—and who is trying to fix it. Subscribe now to get the first episode on July 10. lnk.to/akQAPD

Heartbreaking to read the BBC article posted by @oaa-anaes.bsky.social below. This simply should not still be happening. If you work in #OBAnes, listen to women. If a woman says she’s in pain, believe her. @rcoanews.bsky.social podcast on pain during CD here - podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

The Snapshot Obstetric National Anaesthetics Research (SONAR) project investigating pain during Caesarean with neuraxial anaesthesia got underway this week. This NIHR portfolio project is something I have been agitating for over almost 10 years. Why? 1/

This case study outlines ‘what good looks like’ in public and patient involvement in healthcare improvement. A truly collaborative experience, thanks to the principled approach of the researchers. A privilege to work with this team. @marydixonwoods.bsky.social @lisahinton.bsky.social

✨My essay in @thelancet.bsky.social this week has made the front page!✨ (I didn’t know about this 🤗) ‘Reflect, Collaborate and Listen’ looks at why doctors don’t listen and the urgent need to rebalance the power dynamic in the patient - doctor relationship. www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Lovely feedback for this podcast. It was many years ago that the infinitely wise @martinbromiley.bsky.social encouraged me to think about how the messages from my experience of obstetric anaesthesia could be generalised. It is great to see this still comes across.

It is often overlooked that patients who engage in research do so to try to prevent others suffering as they have themselves. This insightful blog is spot on describing their grief as ‘an invisible weight they carry into every conversation, decision, and interaction.’ #patientsafety

For trainees in obstetric anaesthesia, the new NovPod series from the RCOA and OAA will be useful. I had fun chatting with Eoin Dore and Rosie Grimes about testing neuraxial blocks and being prepared for those which fail. We covered a lot of ground! podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/a...

Welcome to everyone new to Bluesky! Here are 4 (illustrated) steps you can take to make your experience here more pleasant than what you left behind on X and/or Threads. A 🧵

Impact of safety incidents on staff can IMHO be a bit of a taboo subject. There are two givens in a medical career. 1) We will be involved in something going wrong. 2) We will need to say sorry to a patient or family. I don’t think we teach either well…

We do trainees a real disservice by not preparing them for the inevitability of being involved in adverse events. A couple years ago Sarah Seddon and I made this film hoping to help: bit.ly/ManagingAdve...

Never the first to arrive and never the last to leave… Moving over from X for a happier space and looking forward to continuing learning in the way I did in the best days of Twitter. All views my own. Only answerable to Betsy…