Free birth: Experts say babies are paying the price if parents choose to have baby at home

EXCLUSIVE: ‘FREE-BIRTHING’ in Australia is popular because it’s natural, empowers women, avoids hospitals and, costs nothing. But authorities are warning the baby’s life could be the ultimate cost.

Petria Maher quit her nursing job after being badly affected by the home birth death of a little boy. Picture: Luke Marsden.

PETRIA Maher was so haunted by seeing a free-birthed baby die that she walked away from her 50-year career as a nurse, saying the experience “finished her”.

She was on duty in the small country town hospital in Nimbin when the baby, who had been free-birthed without a midwife, was brought in “cold and blue” by his parents.

“I still see that baby and I still hear his heartbeat but the unborn child has no rights, there is no law that covered the unborn child,” the 68-year-old said.

“I did cardiac massage, I was really surprised he had a heartbeat, it was only around 40 beats so it was too slow, so we resuscitated him. I held that little baby and he had a right to live, but he didn’t get a chance.”

Maher worked as a nurse for 50 years before the experience finished her career. Picture by Luke Marsden

Lismore paediatrician Dr Chris ­Ingall, who cared for the baby in the few days he clung to life after he was transferred to Lismore Hospital, has called on authorities to screen prospective parents in a bid to stop such high-risk home births.

“The father wanted to heal the baby but he was the one who created that situation; that baby had no chance in the hands of that father. If babies could vote, they would vote for skilled personnel and full resuscitation facilities,” Dr Ingall said.

Lismore paediatrician Dr Chris Ingall, right, has lost count the number of babies who have been compromised by a home birth. Picture: Brian Pamphilon

Dr Ingall said he had worked on countless babies who had been brought into hospital compromised by a home birth.

“I’ve lost count, maybe 10 to 20 ­babies who have been compromised and end up in special care. They are playing the odds, it’s Russian roulette and it can be a war zone, but (home birth advocates) don’t want to believe that, they want to believe it is all fuzzy and warm and nice,” Dr Ingall said.

The “beautiful and perfectly formed baby boy” who cannot be named for legal reasons died from brain injuries three days after his birth in February 2015. He had been identified as high risk before his birth because he was lying in a transverse position and his mother had hepatitis C, yet a local doctor’s “firm warning” against birthing at home was ignored.

In evidence during an inquest, the mother said she trusted her husband, who had previously delivered five of his own children at home.

The father, who had no training, said he did not agree with doctors or hospital births, which Coroner Harriet Graham said left them “wilfully blind to the level of risk”.

In her findings, Ms Graham stressed the rights of women to decide how they will give birth and recommended the Royal Australasian College of General Practitioners consider developing guidelines to help GPs in advising patients who request non-hospital births.

Tiffany Richmond and 6 week old son Ochre with Midwife Leanne Crumpton who assisted in the home birth. Picture: Luke Marsden.

But Dr Ingall said the model for home birthing in Australia was flawed.

“I couldn’t believe the coroner came out and said we should be doing more to enable home births. I disagree, we should be screening people so they don’t have home births because of geography. There should be geographical screening and as a paediatrician I want a person to be five minutes away from a hospital,” Dr Ingall said.

“Everyone in Europe is five minutes away from a hospital so you can’t apply a European model to Australia because of geography and that makes home birth high risk.

“My advice is don’t have babies at home, have babies in hospital unless you are five minutes away from hospital. People think home birth is lovely and safe, it is not — it’s the one time in a person’s life that is so high risk.”

DANGEROUS ALTERNATIVE TO HOSPITAL

THE north coast is alive with “free birthing” because it ticks all sorts of boxes — it’s seen as natural, empowers women, avoids hospitals and, best of all, costs nothing.

Bronwyn Moir, a private home-birthing midwife based in Lismore, said free birthing was on the rise because people wanted home births but couldn’t afford help.

She said the lack of a publicly funded home birth program, like that in the adjacent Byron Shire, left many parents taking this riskier alternative.

Tiffany Richmond with six-week old son Ochre. Picture: Luke Marsden.

Kirrah Holborn, a doula who helps with home births in the region, said she did not to attend free births because they were “too risky”. She said many people were opting for a free birth because it cost less.

“We’re a low socio-economic area so cost is prohibitive. Some believe they ... have the capabilities to do it themselves,” she said.

Northern NSW also has many untrained “birth consultants”, “spiritual midwives” and “shamanic midwives”.

“(Women) think they are hiring a professional but they are not,” said Leah Hardiman of Maternity Choices Australia.

MUM TICKLED PINK TO HAVE OCHRE AT HOME

SIX weeks ago Byron Bay mum Tiffany Richmond gave birth to son Ochre in the comfort of her home.

“It just seemed like a very natural, nice way to birth, to be in my own space, with all my creature comforts and be nice and cosy,” Mrs Richmond, 33, told The Sunday Telegraph.

While she had her first two sons in a birth centre in Sydney, this birth was her first one at home.

While home births constitute less than 1 per cent of all births, in the Byron shire, the home birth rate is three times that, which is why the North Coast Area Health Service moved to offer a publicly funded home birthing service in 2012.

Mrs Richmond said the home birth of her son was smoother than previous hospital births. Picture: Luke Marsden.

Mrs Richmond said her home birth was a lot smoother than her previous hospital births, popping out baby Ochre in just three hours, but she was prepared to go to hospital if there was a hint of trouble.

“I would never go it alone. My midwife had the same medical equipment at my home as they had at the Bryon Birth Centre at Byron Hospital but if there were any complications we were prepared to go to hospital.”

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