Madam, – As a medical practitioner I am ethically and legally required to pay professional indemnity. This form of insurance is vital to protect patients and I have yet to encounter a single doctor in this state who objects to its existence.
I therefore read with disbelief the recent letter from a group of midwives (April 20th) who are apparently campaigning against mandatory insurance for their “community-based” members. If this is the case, I would regard such an attitude to be reckless, financially irresponsible and ethically questionable.
However, although I am shocked by this campaign, I admit I am not entirely surprised. There appears to be a hard-line “home birth” movement in this State representing a small minority of midwives, who have a reluctance to accept medical reality.
It should be remembered that Ireland is one of the safest nations in the world for a woman to give birth. This has been largely due to generations of brilliant medical obstetricians, assisted by hospital midwives, who have achieved an international reputation for excellence.
Unfortunately, I believe some “home birth” advocates display an almost fanatical hostility to the proven success of the medical-led Irish obstetric service. Instead, they would prefer to emulate countries such as the Netherlands where birth outside hospital is far more common. However, they rarely seem to acknowledge that the Netherlands has the highest rate of perinatal death in Europe.
If we are to see an increase in home births in this State, those involved must be properly regulated, scrutinised and insured to practise. I fear their attitude to date towards such basic regulation does not bode well for the future. – Yours, etc,