Every parent should feel safe, seen and heard when they go into labor. But three Black mothers are now telling the world they did not get that in three separate British hospitals.
In a Sky News report, each woman described moments during labor when her pain, symptoms and instincts were dismissed, minimized or treated like an overreaction. What they experienced was not just frustration. They describe being made to feel unsafe at critical points in their births.
One mother said she felt her pain was dismissed over and over. She recalled a moment in labor when a midwife looked at her and said those exact words to her face: “shut up.” That came while she was in severe pain, trying to communicate what her body was going through.
For all three mothers, these were not isolated comments. Each recounted moments where concerns about symptoms or discomfort were met with delays, indifference, or suggestions that they were exaggerating or imagining what they were feeling. In several instances, their instincts proved accurate, and they later discovered that test results or clinical signs had indeed pointed to real medical issues.
Those interactions left these women feeling not just unheard, but unsafe in settings that should have been places of care and protection.
In the Sky News interviews, the women did not just talk about words. They talked about how being ignored changed how they felt about their bodies, their labor and the staff who were supposed to help them. They described the fear that comes when pain is not acknowledged and when symptoms are minimized, especially when you already know you are hurting.
‘I was told by a midwife to shut up.’
Sky News speaks to three different black mothers, who gave birth in three different hospitals, as they say maternity services failed them.@Shamaan_SkyNews reportshttps://t.co/LN8LLRAH03 pic.twitter.com/8dtf5E5Blb
— Sky News (@SkyNews) February 16, 2026
