Homebirths no more... (1 Viewer)

[Shine]

Homebirths in Ireland - while already rare - are seriously under threat now - the INO are withdrawing insurance from independent midwives. There's a petition here:
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/irishindepmidwives/index.html - (you don't have to pay money when it asks you to - just switch the little tab on the top to see the comments)

there will still be the "domino" model for home births - but it has limited availability and is basically still under hospital control.

It's a poor state of affairs for women birthing in this country.. see also www.aimsireland.com (new this year) and (longstanding in uk) www.aims.org.uk

Apologies if I should have stuck this in some other thread or if i'm not being 5am coherent

 

[billygannon]

That's a disgrace.
It's made me very angry.

 

[La La]

i signed the petition. same situation here, absolute disgrace.
in fact last year i approached the features editor with a pitch for a story on the subject of homebirth and how it isnt supported or insured in HK. she's a nasty piece of work and looks strikingly similar to jabba the hut.
she put down her beef jerky, looked at me and said "next time you pitch a yarn to me, ask yourself what the public think. and on this caswe im prety sure the public would be of the attitude 'who fucking cares?'"

i almost threw a stapler at her i was so angry.

anhyway, i have always been a fan of the idea of independent midwives and the work they do in the community - and I am appalled that yet another door may close on women in the decision making process when it comes to giving birth.

 

[billygannon]

What's the situation in Ireland?
Over here you basically can say to the doctor that you're planning a home birth. Then they have to provide you with a midwife. There are independent midwives, but they cost a fortune.

Forcing women in to having children in hospital is, well, barbaric.

 

[Sufi]

This is rubbish. My mother had her last two kids at home. The midwife is still a good family friend.

I know that now in dublin you can leave the hospital as soon as both mother and baby are deemed in good health. So in theory you can leave within hours of giving birth.
But its not the same as being in the comfort of your own home.

 

[Hector Grey]

this stupid country..if we go around suing everyone in sight every time we do something stupid... then we're not going to be allowed do anything..

 

[Squiggle]

This really annoys me. My mother also had her last two children at home and I would prefer to have any future children I might have at home, and not in some cesspit of a hospital.

Hector is right though. People need to cop on and stop being so litigious.

 

[taubstumm]

you do all know, don't you, that signing an online petition will do nothing? in fact, it will do less than nothing, because any anger-fuelled energy that you would have used productively will be sidetracked into the process of signing this petition, meaning that there's even less chance of anything happening?

write a letter to your t.d., people. and copy it to the concerned parties.

 

[taubstumm]

more on e-petitions

 

[egg_]

more on e-petitions

Top notch article, this one.

 

[Pantone247]

Forcing women in to having children in hospital is, well, barbaric.

I would prefer to have any future children I might have at home, and not in some cesspit of a hospital.

jesus it's a hospital not a over turned port-a-loo full of broken glass

 

[egg_]

jesus it's a hospital not a over turned port-a-loo full of broken glass

Indeed
"Barbaric"! "Cesspit"! Don't lost the run of yourselves now folks

 

[billygannon]

jesus it's a hospital not a over turned port-a-loo full of broken glass

I know that. I've become one of the grolies (Guardian Readers Of Limited Intelligence In Ethnic Skirts). I'm going to take some Chamomilla to ease my nerves. And maybe burn some incense to realign my chi.

Anyway... they'd don't insure independent midwives in the UK. It costs about £3,000 to hire one.
But if you request a home birth, the NHS have to provide you with a midwife to attend the birth (and a second comes along when the baby is ready to come along). Is this the case in Ireland?

We ended up in hospital, and they were excellent. But planned home births are the safest and best way to have a baby. I'm just a bit angry that the INO are kind of taking this away.

 

[magicbastarder]

how do the figures for home births stack up against hospital births, in terms of natal and mother fatality or other complications?

my brother's kids were born in holles street. they once had a paternal fatality there; poor chap fainted, and cracked his head open against a steel trolley on the way down.

 

[magicbastarder]

i don't see people clamouring for home appendectomies.

 

[Sufi]

Well giving birth in hospital is a relatively new phenomenon.
The mother isn't sick just giving birth. I can understand peoples reluctance to go into hospital.
Also with hospital overcrowding you would think that the government would be making moves to free up hospital beds rather than fill them up more.

If the birth is well supervised with a good midwife there are the same risks at home as in a hospital.

 

[egg_]

how do the figures for home births stack up against hospital births, in terms of natal and mother fatality or other complications?

I expect there aren't enough home births in Ireland to make a reliable comparison. There might be figures for the UK or France I guess

i don't see people clamouring for home appendectomies

You're joking, right? Pregnancy isn't a disease for which birth is the cure.

 

[magicbastarder]

You're joking, right? Pregnancy isn't a disease for which birth is the cure.

my comment was made with some amount of flippancy.

 

[Hector Grey]

But planned home births are the safest and best way to have a baby.

this is not a fact. what if, god forbid, anything were to go wrong? got an intensive care unit in your garden shed?
there was yer one recently who was having a home birth, and the baby was over due and she left it til the baby was dead and that wouldn't have happened in hospital. and now the government in their infinate, solomonesque, wisdom have decreed, yis are all fucktards and you can't do this. cos some people can't be trusted.

 

[egg_]

this is not a fact. what if, god forbid, anything were to go wrong? got an intensive care unit in your garden shed?

What if, god forbid, the hospital people browbeat you into delivering on the flat of your back and it was excrutiatingly painful and you tore inside and bled to death cos the doctor hadn't slept for 36 hours and wasn't on the ball?

Deaths/near misses happen in hospital too. No point making claims one way or the other (Billy!) unless you got the facts to back it up. The UK has a lower infant mortality rate than Ireland (http://globalis.gvu.unu.edu/indicator.cfm?IndicatorID=25&country=IE#rowIE), and around 2% of births there are at home (http://www.birthchoiceuk.com/Tables/TableHB_AO2.htm). Dunno what the percentage is here, but I expect it's lower