Once more the maternity system in New Zealand is under fire in the Dominion post, with a couple of articles involving the death of newborn babies. In the first article, the newborn died from haemorrhagic disease (excessive bleeding) because the parents refused to allow their child to have vitamin K. Too much internet disinformation can [...]

Stillbirths are traumatic. I am a seasoned provider of terminal care, so the dying process does not phase me, like it phases many of my colleagues. Even so, the death of a baby is horribly unpleasant and even more so when the baby is stillborn or dies soon after birth. All that expectation of happiness [...]

Currently there is an ugly drama being played out in the Health Practitioners Disciplinary Tribunal hearing in Invercargill. The drama revolves around the thoroughly dysfunctional relationship between an obstetrician and a midwife that lead to the death of a baby. In essence, the drama is a microcosm of the story played out nationwide. Since the radical [...]

I am glad to see some common sense prevailed in the case of pregnant Lithuanian tourist Jurga Skiauteris. The current immigration ruling appears to consider pregnancy of some sort of disease, purely on the spurious grounds that our maternity services are stretched. This is clearly complete nonsense as anyone on a tourist visa would attract [...]

National released their policy for maternity care (PDF) yesterday. I have looked at it in detail below. I note in passing that, as we get closer to the election, National seem to be producing more and more detailed policy which is well costed. This is in contrast to Labour which seems to have little (recent) [...]

The report (PDF) on the death of the baby who died during birthing in Kenepuru Hospital makes interesting reading. It rather blithely states that “Maternity services in the Wellington area are as safe as maternity services anywhere else in New Zealand”. This is rather like saying that, in the current economic crisis, New Zealand banks are no more [...]