Goodbye 2003 A bad year for
midwifery and birth in Ireland!
© Marie O'Connor

Dear friends

Irish tradition, has it that January 6 is "Little Christmas" or Nollaig na mBan (the Women's Christmas) (note that women are allocated the lesser feast, in the spirit of the patriarchy!). So, Happy Little Christmas, everyone!!!

The growing medical opposition to midwifery-based maternity care seen in Ireland seems to be part of a worldwide trend, which has been documented most recently in the Czech Republic, France and Britain. Here is a very brief summary of the Irish experience:

2003 was the year when
the Government decided to centralise hospital medical services, closing nearly half of the country's 22 maternity units; these closures are now imminent.

Hospital consultants declared their opposition to midwife-managed maternity care in hospitals without obstetricians to "supervise" them
The Supreme Court ruled against home birth mothers, declaring that they had no legal entitlement to a home birth service from the State
Home birth has therefore ceased to be part of the public health system.

Indemnity insurers advised their general medical practitioner members not to accept home birth mothers as "patients", thus denying them access to free mother and child services as per their legal entitlement.

Dublin and Cork maternity hospitals refused to accept all referrals - other than emergencies - from independent (self-employed) midwives
Cork hospital doctors refused to work with midwives under contract to provide home birth services to the State.

A statistically worthless "study", now discredited in MIDIRS, trumpeting the "dangers" of home birth in Dublin was published in the medical press
Dublin maternity hospital consultants declared war - in the media - against the Region's independent home birth midwives.

Despite strong demand, the Western Health Board continued to refuse to reinstate its suspended home birth service.

Finally, despite a crippling shortage of midwives, the first course in "direct entry" or open access midwifery ended without any prospect of a follow-up course ...

Incoming health legislation means an opportunity to lobby politicians to restore home birth as part of the public health system. This is part of a wider effort - to end legal, structural and regulatory discrimination against midwives, while at the same time campaigning to get women's right to choose how to give birth recognised as forming a central part of feminism, knowing that human rights for women in childbirth can only be achieved through securing equality for midwives

Meanwhile, very best wishes for Nollaig na mBan!

© Marie O'Connor
National Birth Alliance