Review sought of childbirth procedure

AN OIREACHTAS committee is to seek an independent review of the cases of women who underwent a controversial procedure during childbirth which left them with a litany of lasting health problems.

The joint committee on health voted unanimously last week to ask Health Minister Mary Harney to review the medical files of the women who were subjected to symphysiotomies – a barbaric procedure during which the pelvis was sawn through to facilitate the delivery of a child.

The procedure was carried out in some maternity hospitals from the 1950s to the 1980s, most recently as 1983 in Our Lady Of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda.