Reply With QuoteQuick, better stop the trial before it shows that homebirth is safe!
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Babies by the dozen but medic says home birth too risky
Babies by the dozen but medic says home birth too risky
Julia Medew
December 6, 2010
MORE than 50 Victorian women have safely given birth at home this year as part of a state government-funded trial that provides hospital back-up, but some say the scheme is too risky to go on.
Wodonga obstetrician Pieter Mourik has called for Victoria's home birth trial to be dropped after a study of more than 37,000 births in the Netherlands found women cared for by midwives without doctors present had double the risk of their baby dying, compared to those who gave birth with doctors.
Dr Mourik, a known opponent of home birth who was named Australia's rural doctor of the year in October, said the study published last month in the British Medical Journal showed any birth at home under the care of midwives was unsafe and should not be supported by governments.
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''I think our new health minister should look at this very closely,'' he said. ''It's only a matter of time before something goes wrong.''
Last year, the Brumby government provided $400,000 for a home birth trial to run out of Casey and Sunshine hospitals. A regional hospital was also going to be involved, but the department of health has not found a suitable one.
Under the trial, women with low-risk pregnancies can be cared for by midwives employed and insured by the hospitals with the option to transfer to the hospital's maternity wards if complications arise during labour.
Director of obstetric services at Southern Health Professor Euan Wallace said about 15 women had participated in Casey Hospital's program with no complications or transfers to hospital. If the program is found to be safe after an evaluation next year, he hopes it will be expanded.
''It's all gone very smoothly … I don't see any hurdles in continuing this,'' he said.
Midwifery group practice mentor at Sunshine Hospital Patrice Hickey said about 40 women had given birth with Sunshine's trial this year, with another 40 booked in before July. She said all of the deliveries had gone well and that only one woman who suffered a postpartum haemorrhage (vaginal blood loss in excess of 500ml following childbirth) needed to be transferred to hospital for further care.
''The midwife put in an IV [drip] at home, an ambulance arrived within three minutes and she was taken to Sunshine Hospital. Everything was OK,'' she said.
Another woman opted to be transferred to hospital after going into labour because she decided she would prefer to be there, but Ms Hickey said all participants had been thrilled with the trial which was safe and should continue.
''If there are terrible outcomes, I'm sure they will stop it but there haven't been any adverse outcomes to date,'' she said. But Dr Mourik said catastrophic changes could occur during labour which needed specialist attention within seconds, not minutes or hours.
Dr Rupert Sherwood, the president of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the college did not support home birth - with or without close hospital back-up - because there were safer options available.
Melbourne mother Monique Buggy, who gave birth to her son, Jarrah, at home as part of Sunshine's program in April, praised the midwives involved and said she felt safe knowing that she could go to hospital if necessary.
''It was so beautiful to take my baby boy into the next room and be able to rest in my own bed without having to get into the car or anything,'' she said.
''I would love to see many other women who want this option to have it there.''
Victoria's new Health Minister David Davis said he would wait to see the evaluation of the trial before making a decision about whether the program should continue and expand.
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Quick, better stop the trial before it shows that homebirth is safe!
Registered User
Totally! Geez, let's go to ANY Melbourne...or even Australian hosptials birth ward...in fact, take me to the statistically SAFEST birth ward in Aus, and I'm so sure it will "only be a matter of time before something goes wrong"! I feel very assured, for one, that going through the Sunshine program, I run no risk to myself by getting kit on frigging FIRE while I have my c-section.
Totally ludicrous arguement for discontinuing the program!!
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Hmm this makes me angry, i wonder if they pull up the stats from sunshine hospital on the things that went wrong for their home birth trial and those for the same time born in hospital which would have the greater 'RISK / DAMAGE' associated.
Maybe these dr's need to go overseas, watch women giving birth in corn fields then keep working and see the 'risk' associated.
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Oh and do not forget, many of 'these' doctors refuse to consider things like unnecessary c-sections, episiotomy, unnecessary interventions, non consensual interventions and any other form of birth rape a 'risk'...it's all okay so long as the end result is a healthy baby, right? Like that baby not so long ago that had his skull crushed and his eye popped out of his socked as the good doctor pulled his mother down the table with a vacuum...but omg, just imagine how much worse it would have been if they let the labour progress normally and let her have a normal vaginal birth
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Meh. This guy never says anything worth listening to. The most upsetting part of the article is that he was awarded best rural doctor!
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
It's kinda funny that similarly in WA we have politicians defending homebirth programs against doctors - must be votes in it.
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I have taken a *meh* attitude to anything like this in the media now as there could be 100,000 homebirths without a single problems and ****wads like him and Peske and Ted will still say it is unsafe. It not only proves that they have an irrational hatred of homebirths that is not based on statistics and evidence but rather is personal, but also reinforces the theory that they think they are God himself and the only ones who can save all these stupid women from themselves.
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
Yeah, their complete lack of respect for parents' ability to make rational decisions for themselves is the bit that annoys me most.
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Forgot to post this last night - sent this letter off to the editor:
In regards to the article in today's paper "Babies by the dozen but medic says home birth too risky", I would like to understand why (mostly male) doctors feel the need to deny women a choice.
Last year I travelled to Canberra and stood in the rain with thousands of women to let our voices be heard. Our voices that were raised to demand a choice.
Low-risk pregnancies don't need to be medicalised. Educating women as to what is "normal" and what isn't can truly take the pressure off a failing medical system. Greater community support has a follow-on effect of lower rates of PND.
I am lucky to be able to compare a medicalised OB model of care against a midwife-model of care with two pregnancies. One model tells me the worst-case scenario while the other model performs the same tests, and gives reassurance that the body can look after itself and if necessary, further tests can check if medical intervention is required.
One model is empowering. One model sets me up for success as a mother, and the other model removes my instincts. Guess which model.
And they wonder why women want a choice.
Registered User
Just read this - I wonder if they will end up doing something at my local hospital to shut down a lot of what they do there? I just found out that the entire ward is completely Midwife led (though no homebirths unfortunately) and OB's are only called in if things start to go wrong or if the mother requests it.
Kind of makes you wonder what is so different between a Midwife-led ward and a homebirth with easy access to the hospital if things go wrong?
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