Sir, – There is a HSE ban on birthing in water for women availing of the HSE homebirth service. While labouring in water is “allowed”, women are supposed to exit the pool for the birth. Not something many women would want to or be able to do at that precise moment and questionably not the safest option. The suspension of this service occurred in November 2020, following two adverse incidences and before conducting a formal investigation. Yet the idea that you would suspend Caesarean section, for example, is unthinkable, so why suspend waterbirth? The investigation found no link with the adverse incidences and birthing in water, yet the ban is still in place 18 months on.
The safety record of waterbirth in Ireland was confirmed when an investigation of the HSE Homebirth Service for the previous 12 years found no adverse clinical outcomes associated with birthing in water. The biggest study into the safety of water births conducted in the US in 2021, which compared 17,530 water births and 17,530 non-water births in a healthy, low-risk pregnancies population, corroborate these safety findings. About 33 per cent of women birthing at home use a birthing pool and it is now considered a safe, physiological alternative to medicalised birth. An anonymous survey sent to HSE Homebirth service-users in 2021 reported that 93.6 per cent rated the service as excellent and 100 per cent would recommend the service to family and friends. It is high time that the choice of where and how to birth is returned to women, and that this unethical, unequitable and non-evidenced based ban on birthing in water is lifted. I ask the Minister for Health to instruct the HSE to lift this ban on waterbirth with immediate effect. – Yours, etc,
MARGARET DUNLEA,
Assistant Professor
in Midwifery,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.