Woman in limbo over costs in home birth case

An expectant mother who lost her High Court case to require health chiefs to enable her to have a home birth has been left in limbo after the HSE failed to show up for a hearing on the costs of the action.

Aja Teehan now has no idea if she will be left penniless by the case or if she can risk continuing her legal battle by appealing yesterday’s High Court ruling to the Supreme Court.

The hearing on costs was put back to Sept 6 but the university lecturer, from Thomastown, Co Kilkenny, will be just over a month from her due date then and running out of time to make decisions regarding her next step.