Pregnant women in Guernsey protest against scrapping home births

Pregnant women gathered outside Guernsey States assembly this morning to protest against the scrapping of home births with one saying she feels "pushed into a corner".

It was announced this month midwives will no longer able to support women opting for a home birth in Guernsey because of staffing pressures.

It comes after the service was initially suspended due to Covid.

The decision has been met with opposition from some expectant mothers in Guernsey who protested outside the States today.

Eleanor Mitchel's first baby is due at the end of June.

She said: "You dream of what you want as your ideal birth and for me that would be at home, with some help but as unassisted as possible without as much intervention as possible.

"When this came out you feel like your choice and your plans have been completely shut down without an alternative route which is very difficult so you basically feel pushed into a corner."

She explained some of the reasons women might not want to go into the hospital to give birth could be because of Covid fears or if children cannot go onto the wards with them. Kirsten Hieghton-Jackson had her first baby at home in Canada and is expecting a second.

She explained: "I think it's a basic human right to have a baby and to have it where you want to have it because when you go into a hospital setting you're risking unwanted interventions but you have more control over your body and your birth when you're in your own house."

Deputy Tina Bury, Vice President of Health Committee, was at the protest, and said: "The right to protest is really important and it's really great to actually speak to people face to face instead of emails and through the media.

"The situation hasn't changed however it's nice to have that continued dialogue and really get the personal impacts from people but that wasn't unexpected.

"We knew this was a difficult decision to make, we knew some people would be disappointed but resources, midwives the states of those are what they are and at this moment in time it's just not a service that we can guarantee for people and I think we need to be honest about that."