I don’t want to give birth in transit again, says Laura

JUST 11 days before her fourth child is due, this 31-year-old woman believes she is facing into giving birth without any kind of medical care.

Laura O’Shea, from Wicklow, spent 27 hours in labour with her five-year-old Eaimhín, two hours with her three-year-old Elisé while her third, one-year-old Conall, was born just 40 minutes after her contractions started, as she sped to Dublin in the back of her husband’s car.

Laura and her husband Barry live at Brittas Bay in Co Wicklow. Their nearest maternity service is the National Maternity Hospital at Holles Street in Dublin - a 40-mile journey that can take up to two hours.

“There is a very big risk of the same thing happening this time and so I asked two months ago that I can be ensured of a safe maternity service this time round,” she said.

An ideal situation, she believes, would be if she was allowed to use the services of a midwife who would attend the birth either at home or at a nearby local hospital, depending on the speed of the labour.

However, the Health Service Executive, East Coast Area won’t agree to this.

A spokesman said their “clinical advice was that this woman would be best served by attending Holles Street” and they said they had “bent over backwards” to make this possible.

Options offered to Ms Burke include her being admitted to hospital two weeks before her due date so she has access to a full medical team in the event of a fast birth. In this case, they said, health board-financed childcare would be made available to look after her other three children.

The other option involves an ambulance being put on standby, with two Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) aboard to collect her as soon as she goes into labour. The HSE also offered to accommodate her and her family in Dublin, close to Holles St Hospital. She has also been offered an elective Caesarean section or an induction.

“The options I have been given are ridiculous. I don’t want a Caesarean or an induction as both pose a medical risk and I don’t need either. Also, I can’t move to Dublin. My children are at school and Montessori in Wicklow. Furthermore, I don’t want to go into hospital early as this would be very disruptive for my family. If I take the ambulance option, I will end up in a situation similar to the last time when I gave birth in a vehicle without any expertise. These EMTs have very limited training in childbirth,” she said.

Laura said she can’t sleep at night she is so distressed. She said her only real options are to give birth with her husband’s help at home or in the car.

She also said paid childcare for three children and two weeks “unnecessary hospitalisation” would be far more costly than the €3,000 needed to hire a midwife. The HSE spokesman said it was “not a matter of economics but maximum clinical safety.”

“I have given birth in transit before and it’s not something I want to do again,” Laura said.