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Hanly maternity
unit
closures to lead to roadside births
6th July '05
An increase
in roadside births can be expected as a result of the Government’s
implementation of the Hanly Report, Oireachtas members have been
warned. More mothers will give birth without maternity care during
labour and there will be a rise in inductions and Caesarean sections,
if Hanly is implemented as planned. Speaking at a seminar organised
by the Health Services Action Group, sociologist Marie O’Connor
said maternity unit closures could be expected in Wexford, Kilkenny,
Clonmel, Ballinasloe, Castlebar, Portlaoise and Cavan.
Holding her
seven-week old baby in her arms, National Birth Alliance member
Laura O’Shea spoke about giving birth to a baby on the N11,
in a car travelling at 80 miles an hour. Some thirty TDs and Senators
from all parts of the country listened intently as Ms O’
Shea told them how her efforts to get a local maternity service
from the Health Services Executive had resulted in an offer “tantamount”
to a roadside birth.
“They
suggested I call an ambulance in labour”, the Co Wicklow
mother said, “although they admitted I wouldn’t make
it to Holles Street - my nearest hospital - in time for the birth.
The local head of the ambulance service explained that the ambulance
would pull over to the side of the road twice, once to allow my
baby to be born, and once to allow the placenta to be delivered”.
HSE made no
offer of a midwife to accompany Ms O’Shea in the ambulance.
Instead, she was told that her child would be delivered by an
emergency medical technician - with two days’ training in
childbirth. The other alternative offered to Ms O’Shea was
an induction: “This is a painful procedure for the mother
and its risks are well-documented” she said.
State policy
centralising maternity services leaves many women without maternity
care in labour. “There are an estimated 250 mothers in Ireland
every year who give birth on their own, generally without professional
assistance”, Marie O’Connor observes. “This figure
will rise significantly, post-Hanly”. In Dublin, Born Before
Arrival babies, or BBAs, as they are termed, are already common.
According to the former Master of Holles Street Hospital, Dr Declan
Keane, two or three mothers arrive at his hospital every month,
their babies already born. “Research shows that the death
rate for unplanned out-of-hospital births is eight times higher
than the norm for hospital births”, Marie O’Connor points
out.
Laura O’Shea’s
baby was eventually born, safely and well, at home, under the
care of a midwife, who offered, at the last minute, to provide
her with the care to which she, and her son, had been refused
by the State. The Hanly Report closing maternity units will be
nothing less than a death sentence for Irish babies, she believes.
“Women have a legal right to a maternity service from the
State, irrespective of where they live”.
The National
Birth Alliance is calling on both politicians and members of the
public to halt the ongoing closure of maternity units: access
to local services for childbirth, it says, is a human right.
ENDS
For further
information, please contact Laura O’Shea at 086 0715 938
or Marie O’Connor at 086 8180 254.
© National
Birth Alliance
An Chomhghuallaiocht Naisiunta Breithe
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