Vol. 574 No. 5
83 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Health and Children his plans to introduce legislation or regulations allowing women, regardless of their financial circumstances, to have a home birth, in view of the recent Supreme Court decision; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27589/03]
Following the publication of the report of the maternity and infant care scheme review group, the chief executive officers of the health boards established an expert group in 1997 to consider approaches to providing a home birth service. The expert group recommended three pilot projects, which were subsequently established between 1999 and 2001 with funding from my Department. These included: a community midwifery service conducted in Cork by the Southern Health Board; a hospital outreach approach conducted by the Western Health Board and based at the University College Hospital, Galway; and a DOMINO-outreach project – domiciliary care in and out of hospital – based at the National Maternity Hospital, Holles Street. These pilot projects are now being evaluated under the auspices of the domiciliary births group, which was established by the chief executive officers group earlier this year at the request of my Department with the following terms of reference: to prepare an up to date progress report on the implementation of the recommendations from the expert group on domiciliary births – 1997; to make recommendations on the long-term approach, arising from the outcome of the pilot schemes, and to establish protocols and procedures; and to commission an external evaluation of the three pilot home birth projects.
The external evaluation of the three pilot home birth projects in Dublin, Cork and Galway, and the service in the South-Eastern Health Board area, is due for completion shortly. The domiciliary births group will then engage in a public consultation process and report to the chief executive officers in February-March 2004. The group's report will inform the development of future national policies, procedures and protocols for domiciliary births. Bearing in mind the foregoing, consideration of the issue of legislation or regulations regarding home births should await the outcome of the deliberations of the domiciliary births group.
