HSE backs expansion of home birth scheme
The Domicilary Births Group report found that home birth is “safe” for women at low risk, and the State should offer it to women once it is “adequately resourced and supported.”
The report is to be published in the coming weeks and a national implementation committee will be established to examine legal and safety issues around expanding birth choice in Ireland. The committee will look at how home birth schemes and home/hospital or midwife-led schemes could be extended nationwide, as they are only available in pockets of the country at present.
The study recommends:
* Community midwifery services be integrated with hospital services across the country
* Midwife-led units be developed at all maternity hospitals.
* In the absence of a funded and structured home birth service nationwide, a grant should be paid to women to cover the cost of private midwives.
The Irish Childbirth Trust, Ciudiú, and the childbirth advocacy group, Birthchoice, both welcomed the study which was submitted to the health services last December.
Ciudiú spokesperson Mimi Hannon said: “There is a big demand amongst women to have less medical intervention in childbirth. People are looking for options but they just aren’t there at present. We would be delighted to see a greater role for midwives as they have a lot to offer and women prefer to have continuity of care through pregnancy to childbirth and in the weeks after.”
