Australia: coroner says 3 home birthed babies would have survived in hospital

An Australian coroner ruled that it was a "matter of certainty" that three babies who died in home births — involving same midwife — would have lived had their mothers elected to undergo a hospital birth.

Deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel has also called for changes to laws on home births in Australia after the deaths of the three — one a large baby, one a breech birth and the third one of twins — between 2009 and 2011, Australia's ABC reported. 

Schapel, who noted that midwife Lisa Barrett had been deregistered as a midwife but kept working as a "birthing advocate" — who did not perform midwifery duties except in an emergency — before the birth of the third child, concluded all three infant deaths were preventable.

"All three infants died after complications that were experienced in the course of their deliveries," he found.

"These were complications of a kind that from time to time occur in deliveries of the types involved in these cases and were therefore not entirely unpredictable.

"It has been established in each instance that their deaths arose from complications that were well understood in advance as being risk factors in respect of the types of deliveries that would need to be performed."

Schapel recommended legislative changes to make it an offense for people to operate as unregistered midwives.

"It ought to be regarded as an offense, punishable by law, for midwives to practice midwifery without registration with the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia," he said.

According to the Australian Associated Press, Schapel said Barrett had been "completely oblivious" to the deterioration in the condition of one of the unborn babies, and also wrong in her opinions regarding the likely outcome had a Caesarean section been performed in another of the births.  

While all three home births were planned, he said, their increased risks were known in advance and likely would have been successfully managed in a hospital or clinic.

"In other words, it is said that these deaths could and should have been prevented," Schapel said, AAP reported.
Adelaide Now cited supporters of Barrett outside the court as saying that hospital births also involved risks.

Australia has one of the highest rates of birth intervention in the world.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), meantime, publicly stated that evidence suggests home births carry a two- to three-fold increased risk of newborn death compared to planned hospital births, according to ABC News America. 

Hospitals and birthing centers are the safest places to have a baby, ACOG maintains.

less than 1 percent of American babies are born at home, despite the hype surrounding the reportedly successful home births of celebrities including Giselle Bundchen and Jennifer Connelly.

However, the American Pregnancy Association — cited by ABC — doesn’t advocate a mother choose one birthing method over another, as long as she is educated about the risks and benefits.

Schapel also urged more education for people considering home births. 

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