'Devastating', 'dreadful' and 'anti-woman' were some of the terms used by mothers outside the Four Courts yesterday morning in reaction to the Supreme Court decision that there was no statutory obligation on health boards to provide home birth services.
The decision brings to an end a 20-year legal battle, though many of the women there yesterday said they would fight on.
Ms Monica O'Connor, from Tullow Co Carlow, travelled to Dublin with her six-week-old daughter Elva for yesterday's ruling.
"I am devastated," she said. Elva, her fifth child, was born at home on August 14th with the support of the South Eastern Health Board. The Board contributed €1,680 towards the €2,000 cost of hiring a midwife. Her most recent three children were home births.
"I had my first in hospital and the birth was speeded up because it wasn't happening quickly enough for the hospital. Having Elva at home was incredible. I felt so empowered. The pain wasn't anything I couldn't manage," she said.
She said the medical establishment didn't trust midwives and that obstetricians wanted "to be the gate-keepers of birth".
Ms Sarah Clarke, one of the four women who took the appeal which resulted in yesterday's ruling, said she was "terribly disappointed".
"It shows a shocking lack of imagination on the part of the Supreme Court, in 2003 giving a decision that could have been given in the 1970s. We were looking for clarification around the [1970 Health] Act and instead we find that the Act has closed the door in our faces.
"Our choice now is to lobby our TDs, to call on public support for this and to call on the women of Ireland to get up and start shouting because, if we want home births, we are going to have to fight for them."
Ms Marie O'Connor of the Natural Birth Alliance, expressing her "extreme disappointment" at the judgement, said it meant the option of home births was being closed to less well-off women. "We certainly don't see this as the end of the road. We intend to lobby to dismantle the medical domination of birth. It is a long road ahead of us, but it's an issue of freedom of choice, equality and human rights."
The Minister for Health, Mr Martin, said yesterday the decision would not change the Department's philosophy or policy in relation to providing choice to women. Women should still have the choice available to them of giving birth at home, he said. However, he thought yesterday's judgement "reasonable".
"I would have always thought that it was unreasonable to expect that a health board had to provide a home birth scenario in every case that might apply. There is an issue of scale and capacity," he told The Irish Times. "That said, I think the issue really should be taken out of the courts," he added.