Midwife who struggled to operate baby resuscitation equipment found guilty of poor professional performance

File picture of newborn baby in hospital.

A Dublin midwife who assisted at home births has been found guilty of poor professional performance over her treatment and care of several pregnant women, including her failure to be able to operate baby resuscitation equipment during a difficult birth.

A fitness to practise inquiry by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Ireland found the former midwife Brenda McGarrity guilty of 11 out of 13 allegations of poor professional performance and a failure to comply with her professional code of conduct.

Two other charges in relation to the care of two other patients were not proven.

Among the serious issues raised during an inquiry, which was held over three days earlier this year, were the failure of Ms McGarrity, who is also known as Brenda Lawrence, to adequately set up resuscitation equipment for newborn babies and for failing to monitor a foetal heartbeat for an adequate period during her care of a pregnant woman in August 2015.

Chairman of the NMBI’s fitness to practise committee Mark Blake Knox said it accepted the evidence of another midwife that Ms McGarrity did not appear to know how to use such equipment, and had looked “like a rabbit in the headlights”.

The case arose after Ms McGarrity’s employer, UK Birth Centres — the parent company of Santry-based Private Midwives Ireland — made a formal complaint to the NMBI about its concerns over the midwife’s clinical competence, record-keeping, communications, and a failure to ensure she had adequate training.

Ms McGarrity, who has not practised as a midwife since 2016, did not attend the inquiry, and was not legally represented.

However, she had applied to the NMBI earlier this year to have the hearing deferred as she was awaiting surgery, but then did not respond to further contacts from her regulatory body.

Ms McGarrity also claimed the allegations against her were “vexatious” and that she had been subject to bullying and malicious complaints because she had taken a Workplace Relations Commission case against her employer.

In its ruling today, the fitness to practise committee also found the midwife had claimed she had performed a clinical emergency during a delivery in November 2015, and notified the National Maternity Hospital about the incident when she knew it was untrue, as the baby had been born without complications.

In relation to other charges, Ms McGarrity was found to have communicated in an unprofessional and inappropriate manner with one pregnant woman by being “snappy” and taking her blood pressure against her will.

She referred to one woman who had made a complaint against her as “greedy, miserable, and poisonous”. 

The midwife also made derogatory remarks in an email to a superior about a male colleague whom she claimed should “grow a pair of balls”. 

Ms McGarrity, whose last known address was Castleheath, Malahide, Co Dublin, also failed to keep adequate records about the care of two other women.

During the inquiry, which was held in July and September, counsel for the NMBI, Nessa Bird, claimed Ms McGarrity would have posed a risk to patients and brought the profession into disrepute if the allegations against her were proven.

Private Midwives Ireland’s director of midwifery, Dr Linda Bryceland, gave evidence that it became clear after Ms McGarrity had started her initiation period working in Ireland that she had not completed the training courses that she had claimed to have completed in her job interview.

Another midwife, Elizabeth Halliday, told the inquiry how Ms McGarrity had appeared “quite panicked and quite frightened” during a “fairly straightforward” potential resuscitation with a newborn baby.

The FTP committee acknowledged that most findings only related to breaches of the nursing code of conduct which were not regarded as serious.

The NMBI will decide on what sanctions to apply to Ms McGarrity at a later date.