20-Year
Homebirth
Battle Ends Tomorrow
in Supreme Court
4th November 2003
Tomorrow will see the culmination of 20 years of consumer litigation,
as the Supreme Court decides whether or not home birth is to remain
an option for less well off women, or whether it will become a
choice reserved solely for the rich.
Sociologist and health
correspondent Marie O’Connor points out that the Government’s
decision to push through the Hanly agenda will leave thousands
of women around the country without access to maternity care:
“If consultant bodies succeed in closing these maternity
units, home birth will become a vital link in the delivery of
local services. Women cannot be expected to drive for two hours
in the height of labour”.
Home birth parents,
grandparents, babies born at home and midwives will gather in
the Round Hall and on the steps of the Four Courts to hear the
verdict on an appeal taken by four home birth mothers in Dublin
against the South-Western Area Health Board’s refusal to
give them a home birth ‘grant’. At 10.30 a.m. tomorrow
the issue of whether or not women are entitled to a free home
birth service from the State under the 1970 Health Act will be
decided.
The home birth issue
has been hotly debated in recent years, particularly in Dublin.
Parents making this choice see home as offering a safer environment
for a baby to be born into, away from the dangers of “active
[medical] management” in hospital, according to the Home
Birth Association. “Women choosing home birth are putting
safety first”, says Krysia Lynch-Rybaczuk, the Association’s
PRO. “We look forward to seeing women’s right to a free
home birth service from the State restored”.
Meanwhile the National
Birth Alliance says that choice in childbirth is central to women’s
human rights: “Consultant bodies propose to close 8 or 9
maternity units around the country, yet they refuse to allow midwives
to run the services”, says Philomena Canning, an independent
midwife in the Dublin area.
For further details,
please call:
Home
Birth Association
Krysia
Lynch-Rybaczuk
Telephone: 01 660 3499
Mobile: 087 754 3751
Independent Midwife ERHA
Philomena Canning
Telephone: 01 495 1902
Mobile: 087 290 0017
National Birth Alliance
Marie O’Connor
Telephone: 01 838 8168
Mobile: 087 918 2722
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