Midwife dismissed for attending home birth

[Philly]

Didi anyone hear Womans'Hour today and hear the article about this.I missed the bit in the middle but I presume he was dismissed because the Health Authority had suspended the home birth survice and this would have had insurance consequences but the bit that got me was the attitude of teh Health authority spokes woman and whilst I appreciate that they had staff problems to say that local women have to effectively request taht they run this service is absurd,what are they expecting people to do ,write to their authority and raise petitions before they know they are pregnant because it would be too late if they waited until they were!
I had 3 hospital births adn all were more or less as I would have wished but I would always defend people's right to choose,I'm glad I don't live in Peterboro'!

There's another thread on this in the "In the News" section but I didn't hear the Woman's Hour programme. I've been following the case fairly closely because the MW concerned was my community MW when I was pregnant with ds2. The maternity services in general in P'boro are far from perfect (and that's being polite!). There used to be a service offered where you could see one of a team of MW's and therefore would know the MW assisting you with your hospital birth. This was suspended 18 months ago due to funding/staffing shortages and still hasn't been brought back. My community MW was brilliant. He offered me the option of a home-birth but after the difficulties with ds1's birth I opted for a hospital birth. He didn't try to talk me into a home birth and actually took the time to visit me in the delivery room after ds2's birth - even though his shift had long since finished. The letters of support in the local press all tell similar stories. I think one family actually asked him to be the godfather of their child. Others have told how he even sent them a small present on their child's 1st birthday after the child had a particularly difficult start to life. He's one in a million IMHO.