{"id":811078,"date":"2026-08-12T10:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/811078\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T10:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:44:10","slug":"sodium-valproate-women-feel-guilt-and-anger-and-they-want-peace-the-epilepsy-drug-that-harmed-babies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/811078\/","title":{"rendered":"Sodium Valproate: Women feel guilt and anger and they want peace – the epilepsy drug that harmed babies"},"content":{"rendered":"

“All the women feel guilty,” said Susan.<\/p>\n

“The government knew that it [sodium valproate] caused problems and it was still continued to be licensed for usage for pregnant women,” she said.<\/p>\n

In June, England’s first patient safety commissioner, Dr Henrietta Hughes, wrote to then Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, external<\/a> expressing disappointment that there had not been a “substantive response” from the government to the calls for redress. She has still not received a response to her 16 July deadline. <\/p>\n

Back living in Northern Ireland, it was only after the 2020 publication of the Cumberlege Report, , external<\/a> that Susan says she got “closure”.<\/p>\n

But six years on from the initial report, families are waiting for redress.<\/p>\n

“I’m angry. Parents are not getting any younger and we need to set out a care path for our children. It needs to be sorted quickly,” Susan said.<\/p>\n

“If I am no longer here Anna will have proper housing and medical care which she will need all her life,” she added.<\/p>\n

Anna, 32, is also angry on behalf of her mum. <\/p>\n

“I have tried to convince her we don’t hold any grudge. I am grateful to her – it’s not her fault. They should have been more honest with her,” she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"“All the women feel guilty,” said Susan. “The government knew that it [sodium valproate] caused problems and it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":811079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[97,243],"class_list":["post-811078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-medication","tag-health","tag-medication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=811078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/811078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/811079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=811078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=811078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=811078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}