This article is from page 12 of the 2007-05-29 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
TWENTY years ago, the maternity unit at Ennis General Hospital was closed and since then, the only babies born in Clare are to the few women who hire independent midwives for home births, and those women who do not make it to hospital and give birth at the side of the road. A new group, Birth Choice Clare, has launched a cam- paign for the es- tablishment of a midwife led, com- munity based, stand-alone ma- ternity — facility in Ennis to serve the more than 105,000 ~~‘ popu- lation of Clare. Because 85 to 90 per cent of births are normal, mem- bers say such a midwife led unit would be as suc- CIAO MECISMECIDOOUUEADE units in the UK and elsewhere. Birth Choice Clare says women and their babies should not be subjected to the dangers of roadside births un-
necessarily and travelling from some parts of the county could involve journeys of up to two hours, depend- ing on traffic.
The campaign will be highlighted this Sunday, June 3, in a special re- port on RTE’s regional and commu- nity affairs programme,