Noah Brabazon is only three months old, but he was part of a demonstration outside the High Court in Dublin. He was in the arms of his father, Anthony, and, along with other parents and children, many wearing T-shirts or holding placards saying "I was born at home", had come to support Ann O Ceallaigh.
She is a domiciliary midwife against whom an interim injunction was granted by the High Court on August 1st last preventing her from practising. The injunction was granted on foot of an application from the regulatory body for nurses, An Bord Altranais.
Ms O Ceallaigh was in court yesterday seeking a judicial review of this decision, asking that it be set aside. The hearing was adjourned until today.
A small, slight, shy woman, she appeared briefly outside before the court sat. She was met with cheers and surrounded by parents and children. She greeted them by name, commenting on how the children she had delivered had grown. The demonstration was a cheerful affair, with children playing in the warm September sun. Three mothers breast-fed their babies on the steps of the court building while others explained to reporters why they were there.
They had prepared a brief statement, which said: "We are a group of competent expectant mothers who have chosen to have our babies delivered at home, as is our right.
"We urgently want (as the nearest birth is just three weeks away) this injunction against Ann Kelly, domiciliary midwife (which prevents her from practising) to be lifted - there are only four other domiciliary midwives in the Dublin/Wicklow area and all of these are totally booked up."
Mandy Jackson is a midwife herself. She had a baby at a leading maternity hospital last year, and her second baby is due in January. She wants to have it at home, and booked Ms O Ceallaigh to attend her for a home birth. "I was very unhappy with the management of labour," she said of the maternity hospital. "I felt it was very aggressive because they are under huge pressure to hurry people through. There are 7,000 women and 10 delivery units.
"I felt totally disempowered. My labour was only four hours, and they wanted me to have Syntocinon (a drug to hasten labour). I refused.
"I'm a midwife myself and I know that's not how it should be. If I had pre-eclampsia or something and I needed hospital, grand. But if everything is normal it fills me with dread. Ann's dedication is beyond anything. You couldn't get it in hospital." Nicola Reeves is expecting her third child in December. Her decision to have the baby at home is based, not on bad experiences, but of a good one. This was in a clinic in France, where she was attended by a doctor and had no chemical or surgical intervention of any kind. "I just feel I don't need to go into hospital for something as straightforward as birth," she said. "Home is cheaper and more peaceful than hospital. If you do want a natural birth in hospital you're battling all the way. When I was pregnant I picked Ann from the health board list. My care was interrupted suddenly and without any warning."
She and Mandy, along with 14 other women, are seeking, with Ms O Ceallaigh's agreement, to be joined as Parties on Notice in her action to have the injunction lifted. Cuidiu - the Irish Childbirth Trust is also seeking to be joined to the action. In a statement it said: "Reflecting general trends in Ireland, the majority of our members give birth to their babies in hospital, and Cuidiu, the Irish Childbirth Trust, enjoys excellent working relationships with the maternity hospitals.
"As a charity involved in the provision of support and information to expectant parents, we believe that the choice of where to have their baby is one for each mother and her partner to make for themselves."