In yesterday's Sunday Herald...
Playing politics puts mothers' and their babies' lives at risk
By Miranda Devine
The tragic case of baby Natalia Lalic, who died five days after being born at
The increasing demands by feminist ideologues for "women-centred" birth centres with midwives providing exclusive care neatly dovetail with the desire by the State Government to cut health costs while appearing to deliver new facilities in marginal seats.
Natalia was born five days after the 2003 state election in
Though Camden was just a 20-minute drive from Campbelltown Hospital's fully staffed maternity unit, which could have done with the extra money, the Government opened the new ward against the advice of the South Western Sydney Area Health Service board, which was concerned about duplicating resources and a shortage of specialists.
When no anaesthetists could be found for
But, as the NSW Medical Tribunal has heard, there was no pediatrician on hand to resuscitate Natalia when she was born without a heartbeat after a difficult labour in which the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck. Some anaesthetists on roster lived 40 minutes away and pediatricians 30 minutes away.
Crucially, the hospital required 69 minutes to set up an emergency caesarean section. So even when it was clear the baby was in distress, the obstetrician on duty made the decision that it would be faster for her to be born by assisted vaginal delivery. She died five days later.
The doctor has since endured three debilitating years of blame for the judgement calls he made that terrible morning.
The Health Care Complaints Commission alleged he should have organised a caesarean and called a pediatrician earlier.
Last week the obstetrician, whose name has been suppressed, was cleared of any wrongdoing by the tribunal. There was no guarantee the baby would have lived if a caesarean had been ordered.
But an anaesthetist who works in northern
And yet, a recent review of maternity services in the Northern Sydney Central Coast Health service area has recommended fewer births at RNS (down 15 births a month to 200) and more at smaller, less-resourced units, such as Mona Vale and Ryde.
The anaesthetist says health bureaucrats want to reduce the 2400 annual births at RNS by 600 or 700, for budgetary reasons. The amalgamation of northern
"Politicians use obstetric services as a vote-winner," he says.
The review has not addressed specialist concerns about safety at small units and makes only politically palatable recommendations, he says. While it states that duplication of obstetric services between Manly and Mona Vale is "not sustainable", it advocates the "development of shared positions across the two sites".
Specialist doctors also feel the review report was released stealthily, on January 2, "when everyone is on holidays", with comments due by January 16.
The report states that "volumes of births across the seven sites are not sufficient to support seven traditional maternity units" with full services of obstetricians, anaesthetists and midwives. But it does not recommend closing Ryde and Wyong obstetric units, as many specialists think should happen.
If the safety of mother and child were paramount, common sense would dictate that you would make most use of hospitals such as
And just because there is an anaesthetist across the corridor ready for an emergency caesarean or to provide pain relief, doesn't mean a mother can't have a drug-free natural birth. It just means she has a choice.
Freelance Journalist
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