Home birth advocates to protest over midwife insurance

Home birth campaigners are to protest outside the Dáil this week over the treatment of independent midwife Philomena Canning.

The HSE withdrew Ms Canning’s professional indemnity to practice following what they described as two serious incidents.

She went to the High Court last week and claimed the HSE's decision to withdraw her indemnity cover, taken earlier this month, is unlawful and has effectively shut down her practice.

The HSE, which opposed the application, said it temporarily suspended her insurance cover pending an investigation into the circumstances of two home births at which Ms Canning provided midwifery services.

The HSE argued that while no findings of wrongdoing had been made against Ms Canning, it had to act in the interests of public health until the investigation into the incidents had been concluded.

Ms Canning said she did not accept the standard of care she provided fell below the required levels.

High Court judge Mr Justice Max Barrett refused to grant Ms Canning an injunction restraining the HSE from withdrawing indemnity cover under its Clinical Indemnity Scheme.

The HSE’s actions have angered many involved in home birth, including 25 women who have Ms Canning as their home birth midwife.

Supporters of Ms Canning will present a petition to Dáil Éireann which has 2,500 signatures, and have sought a meeting with the Minister for Health Leo Varadkar.

The Philomena Canning Campaign has been set up by families and the users of maternity services, with the support of the Home Birth Association of Ireland and the Association for Improvements in Maternity Services (AIMS) Ireland.

Spokeswoman Ciara Considine said it was now an "urgent issue" with many of the mothers-to-be due to give birth imminently.

Ms Considine added: “These women have absolute trust in Philomena, yet are being prevented from accessing the health care they need by the HSE. To date the majority have not been provided with a replacement midwife, some are imminently due babies. Ms Canning’s ability to practice must be immediately restored.

“In the context of a maternity services system within whose hospital care women have died tragically and unnecessarily in recent years, without the loss of indemnity of a single practitioner, we find this situation all the more abhorrent and unjust.”