The protest was organised by Kirsten Hieghton-Jackson who conducted a survey to attain homebirth cancellation statistics after stating that the States’ homebirth figures were misleading.
“The States said there have only been 15 home births in the last five years; that is not an accurate representation of the figures because homebirths were cancelled for two years due to the covid pandemic,” she said.
“I created a survey to see how some local mums were affected by the cancellation of the service.
“The survey was shared via word of mouth and didn’t go viral so it doesn’t include everyone affected, but so far the results show that at least 30 mothers had their home births cancelled between 2020 and 2022.”
Pictured: Ms Hieghton-Jackson’s survey results.
Ms Hieghton-Jackson claimed the results of her survey support her claim that there would have been more than 15 homebirths in the last five years if the service had not been suspended during the pandemic.
Her survey results showed that 60 mothers who responded wanted homebirth support in Guernsey.
The Vice-President of the Committee for Health and Social Care, Deputy Tina Bury, stopped and talked with the protesters before attending a States’ meeting.
Ms Hieghton-Jackson discussed her survey results with Deputy Bury and said that the States had “manipulated data” and “should be in the business of telling the truth”.
Deputy Bury responded: “I am not in the business of telling untruths; decisions were made with the support of statistics we were provided with.
“I have requested further details of the statistics and will be able to respond once I have that information.”
Pictured: Deputy Tina Bury (right) speaking with protesters.
The decision not to reinstate the homebirth service was announced by HSC earlier this month and a Committee spokesperson said the decision had been supported by the Royal College of Midwives.
Speaking to Express previously, HSC said the decision was made to prioritise delivering hospital services.
“We want to make absolutely clear that there have been no budget or staff cuts in midwifery services,” it said.
“Prior to making this decision, we consulted with the Maternity Voices service user chair and their deputy. We also engaged with the Royal College of Midwives, who are supportive of the decision.”
Pictured: Deputy Andrew Taylor (left) and Deputy Steve Falla also stopped to listen to protesters.
Ms Heighton-Jackson said she had contacted the Royal College of Midwives directly and claimed that, based on her communication with them, their support of the States’ decision was based on misleading figures.
“I spoke to someone in the ‘activism’ branch of the Royal College of Midwives and I was told that they had only heard of one pregnant mother on Guernsey who had requested a home birth,” she said.
“I was told that if there were more women requesting home births, such as eight or more, the Royal College of Midwives would not support the Committee’s decision and instead would tell the Committee that they need to figure out how to support the service so mothers who want support don’t go unassisted.
“In hearing this, I gathered some numbers through word of mouth with a local doula and I have found 14 pregnant mothers who want the homebirth option. I reported this back to the Royal College of Midwives and they said they will bring it up with our head of midwifery.”
Deputy Bury said that the best way forward would be for the protest group and the Committee to work together in discussions with the Royal College of Midwives rather than each contacting the agency separately.
Pictured: a mother who attended the protest with her child.
The Committee cited the on-call demand on midwives as a contributing factor in its decision not to reinstate the service.
“Ensuring appropriate support is in place for homebirths relies on a demanding on-call commitment from community midwives on top of their contracted hours,” said HSC.
“The Committee recognises that some women may wish to give birth at home, and it would like to be in a position to provide that service. However, we are duty bound to ensure the core services on Loveridge Ward are maintained at all times.”
At the time of the announcement Deputy Bury said: “the midwifery team is small and it was simply not sustainable or safe in the long term to provide the kind of on-call cover needed to support homebirths.”
Pictured: Deputy Bury said: “we have to focus our limited resources where they are of greatest benefit to the significant majority of women who choose to give birth on Loveridge Ward”.
An expectant mother at the protest asked Deputy Bury why the Committee had given “no indication that the service will be reinstated” when resources allow.
“We [the Committee] don’t want to say ‘never’, but we also don’t want to make false promises and we need to be realistic,” responded Deputy Bury.
“We don’t have enough information at this stage to be able to say it will definitely be possible for it [the midwife-assisted homebirth service] to be provided in the future.”
Ms Hieghton-Jackson shared her survey results with Midwifery and Paediatrics Associate Director Annabel Nicholas.
“Annabel told me she couldn’t comment on the results of the survey because she could not be certain of the demographic of responders and could not ensure that the questions weren’t leading,” she said.
Pictured: a midwife-assisted homebirth service is no longer available to expectant mothers.
Ms Hieghton-Jackson continued: “the responder demographic is mothers who are either still pregnant or were recently pregnant and have accessed the services of a local doula.
“I’ve now been exchanging emails with some of the mothers, heard some of their birth stories, and have met some of them face to face; this is a group of real women.”
Ms Nicholas confirmed that she had been unable to comment on the survey.
“When I responded to Ms Heighton-Jackson initially, I had only been provided with the results of the survey and not the questions,” she said.
“I am aware that some people are unhappy about the decision to cancel the service and I have since been provided the survey questions and I will be looking into this further.”
The Committee for Health and Social Care declined to comment on the results of Ms Hieghton-Jackson’s survey.
Ms Hieghton-Jackson has encouraged women who are currently pregnant or women who gave birth between 2020 and 2022 to complete the survey, which is available HERE.
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