A Co Wicklow woman who wants to have her baby at home has taken a High Court challenge to the refusal of the East Coast Area Health Board to pay for the services of a domiciliary midwife.
Dr Michael Forde SC, for Ms Janine Thorp (30), of Millwood, Arklow Road, Aughrim, said his client had been negotiating for months for a grant from the board, but to no avail.
In an affidavit Mr Colm McGeehan, solicitor for Ms Thorp, said his client had been told no person in Co Wicklow was eligible for a grant for home-based midwifery services on the basis that they were too far from the nearest maternity hospital.
In the past the State had provided domestic midwifery services but, apart from one or two exceptions, did not now do so, notwithstanding a 1988 Supreme Court decision. Instead most, if not all, health authorities paid a grant to those mothers who wanted to have home births.
Under Section 62 of the 1970 Health Act, the ECAHB was obliged to at least meet the reasonable cost of Ms Thorp hiring a qualified and experienced midwife of her choice in the absence of the health board providing the service itself, counsel argued.