Sir, - The debate about having a baby at home or in hospital (The Irish Times, September 13th), raises the serious issue of a woman's right to choose in the Ireland of the third millenium.
As a woman who has experienced both hospital and home births of my children, I strongly resent the suggestion that I could not be trusted to make an informed choice and that I would in any way endanger my baby by resolving not to go to hospital because I cared more about a medication-free experience of labour. Language like "riding a motorbike without a helmet" and describing the passage through the birth canal as "the most dangerous journey one will ever make" is emotive and designed to instil fear in women.
My experience in the hospital setting was one of being subjected to a battery of medications and surgical procedures akin to a factory production-line. In contrast, I found home birth under the care of a domiciliary midwife to be totally sensitive and supportive to me, my baby and my partner.
Hospital is a place for the sick - and the work of consultants, doctors, midwives and nurses in the care of ectopic pregnancies, premature babies, and babies with special needs should not be undervalued in the rare instances when these occur. Is it not convenient that the dogma of fear which corals women into hospital as the only safe place to deliver their baby helps to empower and financially reward certain members of the medical profession to a degree which would be the envy of industrial monopolies?
Is it possible that home births, which are becoming increasingly popular, actually raise issues of competition for those who have been used to being the sole custodians of the mystique associated with birth?
As a mother, I am disappointed that the relevant State authorities have not seen fit to clarify the position on what to date I have regarded as a basic human right - the right to give birth in a manner and location of my choice, under the supervision of a qualified person of my choice. - Yours, etc.,
Killiney, Co Dublin.