Protest planned in Cork over 'restrictive 30-minute' homebirth proposal
File Is From Picture The Against Protest Of Exclusion Women Rural The Choice Of The Homebirth
A protest against a proposed change to homebirth regulations, which campaigners say will exclude women in rural areas from being able to give birth at home, is planned for Cork on Sunday
A proposed recommendation to limit homebirths nationally to women living within 30 minutes of a maternity unit has sparked concerns among advocates and service users. The 30 minutes refers to the time needed for an ambulance to reach the nearest unit with its siren on, the HSE has said.
Elke Hasner, a self-employed community midwife in Cork and a member of the HSE Home Birth Oversight and Steering Committee, said: "The protest is against the exclusion of rural women from the choice of homebirth."
The recommendation estimated that the majority of women will not be affected, but campaigners disagree. “That is true for some maternity units, particularly in Dublin, but it is not true for Cork, for instance,” Ms Hasner said. “If you live in rural Ireland, your choices are being restricted.”
Ms Hasner has raised her concerns with the HSE steering committee and says she would like to see this formally discussed.
The HSE service is being integrated with hospital groups and a meeting is to take place on Monday between designated midwifery officers and the South/SouthWest Hospital Group on integration across Cork and Kerry.
On Sunday, protesters will gather near Cork University Maternity Hospital. Ms Hasner said: “This is not a protest against CUMH. Midwives want to work with CUMH and are absolutely willing to co-operate and bring this integration into reality.”
AIMS Ireland also supports the protest, as one member of the recently formed Birthright Alliance.
Krysia Lynch said: “Ireland has an extremely limited set of choices with respect to maternity care. There are no birth centres and very few midwifery-led options, unlike what you would find across the border in Northern Ireland for example.”
The proposals are “unacceptable”, she said, "home birth is the primary alternative to medicalised childbirth for the majority of rural people."
Meanwhile, a suspension of homebirth services in the mid-west, initiated by the UL Hospitals Group, remains in effect six months after the death of a first-time mother following her scheduled homebirth in Co. Limerick.
A hospital spokesman confirmed that the “temporary suspension” across Limerick, Clare and Tipperary, which came into effect last June, was continuing “pending an external review following a recent maternal death”. He said this review “has begun and is ongoing”.