BMJ  2007;335:209 (28 July), doi:10.1136/bmj.39283.676910.4E

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Labour pains

Wendy Savage, champion of women's rights in childbirth, is back with a polemical look at who controls birth and who controls doctors, writes Duncan Double

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

In 1985 Wendy Savage made medical headlines when she was suspended from practice over charges of incompetence in managing five obstetric cases. The charges centred on births where she was accused of having delayed performing caesarean sections.

After an inquiry conducted in the full blaze of publicity Savage was finally reinstated as senior lecturer in obstetrics and gynaecology at the London Hospital Medical College and honorary consultant at The London Hospital. A Savage Enquiry was her gripping account of these events. In it she wrote, "I and many of my supporters saw my suspension as part of the continuing struggle about who controls childbirth."

In this new book Savage describes for the first time what happened to her when she returned to work. The book focuses on the problems that arise when doctors disagree among themselves. Interpersonal difficulties in her department persisted, despite the recommendations of various reports that working . . . [Full text of this article]

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