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A home birth is not a safe birth
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by Suranee | April 9, 2009 at 01:15 am
469 views | 33 Recommendations | 4 comments
A baby has been reported to have died due to a home birth delivery. The death came at the time the Australian government is considering a review of maternity services.
Reports this week of the death during childbirth of the baby of a leading home birth advocate at her inner-western Sydney home come just as the Government is considering a review of maternity services.
The review, while advocating an increased role for midwives in co-operative settings with doctors, rejected Government funding for home births when it was released in February. This was despite the fact that more than half its submissions came from a minority of home birth advocates, who have besieged the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, ever since.
Dr. Pieter Mourik says that the media has a responsibility to publish these cases when a totally avoidable baby death occurs … so gullible, pregnant women are not persuaded to follow these risky practices".
Westmead Hospital's clinical director of women's health Dr. Andrew Pesce says that in the past eight months four babies have died while they were delivered at home and in four other home births, the baby has suffered possible brain damage from oxygen deprivation; preventable tragedies if prompt medical care had been available.
As a Wodonga obstetrician, Dr Pieter Mourik, says, the natural birth lobby "has been advocating dangerous practices and I believe the media has a responsibility to publish these cases when a totally avoidable baby death occurs … so gullible, pregnant women are not persuaded to follow these risky practices".
Dr Andrew Pesce, Westmead Hospital's clinical director of women's health, says he knows of four home births in the past eight months in western Sydney in which the baby has died, along with a further four home births in which the baby has suffered possible brain damage from oxygen deprivation; preventable tragedies if prompt medical care had been available.
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Roy C
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Barbara McPherson
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Rob Walker
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (4)
at 08:34 on April 9th, 2009
Perhaps the answer is to have more homelike settings for the births at medical centres. It doesn't have to be an acute care hospital. If the decision to have a home birth is made due to financial considerations, you're going to get some needless deaths.
at 18:22 on April 9th, 2009
Having a doctor/midwife helps too. I had a friend in Colorado who had her baby at home. She had her doctor there to assist her. There were no problems and yes, she did it because she could not afford to pay the hospital bills. But here in Sri lanka alot of women have their babies at the hospital because you also get hospitals where you aren't charged for the delivery and hospital stay. Such hospitals are known as General Hospitals.
at 09:01 on April 9th, 2009
I wouldn't say that just because there are some senseless deaths during home births that a 'home birth is not a safe birth'; that's quite a definite statement, but senseless deaths occur in the hospitals as well. I would say that there is not enough evidence to firmly state that all home births are not safe at this point.
at 18:29 on April 9th, 2009
You're right Amy. Just as in a home birth delivery, there's also a chance of something going wrong when having a baby at a hospital.