South-Australian midwife and homebirth advocate Lisa Barrett has been arrested at her Adelaide Hills home and charged with two counts of manslaughter on Tuesday.
According to news.com.au, the arrest comes following a lengthy investigation into five infant deaths that have occurred at home births Barrett had attended over a number of years.
Specifically, the 50-year-old’s manslaughter charges are believed to relate to Tully Kavanagh, an infant who died shortly after birth in October 2011, and another unnamed infant who died in December 2012.
Following their deaths, the Major Crime Investigation Branch began looking into Barrett's involvement and last week, the Director of Public Prosecutions Adam Kimber, SC, announced that he believes there is reasonable evidence to arrest and seek a conviction of Barrett over the deaths.
In 2010, an inquest into Barrett's involvement in the deaths of Tate Spencer-Koch, an infant who died shortly after birth in July 2007 and Jahli Hobbs, another infant who also died shortly after birth in April 2009.
Eventually, though, the inquest's scope was widened to also include information about the death of Tully Kavanagh, an unnamed Perth baby who died in July 2011 and an infant boy who died in December 2012.
All babies died via complications relating to home births that Barrett attended.
While in court, Barrett refused to answer questions relating to the deaths of the Perth infant and Kavanagh, allegedly telling the court she did not want to say anything that may incriminate her.
In his findings, Deputy State Coroner Anthony Schapel said at least three of the deaths “could and should have been prevented.’’
In October 2012, Steve Tully, the South Australia Health and Community Services Complaints Commissioner, issued a public warning against Barrett and her services, saying that until further notice, she should not be performing or participating in home births or carrying out medical tasks relating to pregnancy and birth.
Just two months later, Barrett ignored the warning and attended a homebirth in Northfield, which ultimately resulted in an infant death.
Tully claimed there was evidence that showed that during the December 2012 birth, Barrett provided “all of the midwifery type advice and services prior to, at and during, that labour’’ to the expectant mother.
Following the death, Tully stepped up the limitations around Barrett, issuing a prohibitive order in November 2013 that not only banned Barrett from providing any service whatsoever to pregnant women but also held women who employed her services at risk of being found guilty of committing a criminal offence.
In 2014, the South Australian Health Practitioners Tribunal fined Barrett $20,000 and issued an order against Barrett practising any services to pregnant women.
It is expected that Barrett will appear in court later today.
Top Comments
I think it's terribly sad that the vast majority of news we all see in relation to home births is negative.
Please let me say first and foremost I think this person in question should be put under intense scrutiny to get to the bottom of what actually happened. Being personally involved in the deaths of several newborns is severely worrying and simply not acceptable. Be it home birth related or otherwise.
But saying that, I am a mother of two beautiful healthy children, both born at home peacefully and complication free.
I was attended to by highly qualified, highly experienced midwives who provided an above and beyond service to me and my family which I will never forget.
Please don't let this be a case of "home birth on trial".
It should simply be a case of this particular person being on trial for her direct actions and decisions.
Good, all midwives who perform home births that result in a preventable death should be charged. I really am astounded that potential mothers are so selfish in seeking a "special birthing experience" that they would use a midwife with prior infant deaths rather than the safety of a hospital. All the placenta pancakes in the world won't bring those babies back.
Agree. I think people genuinely forget that childbirth should be focused first and foremost on survival for both mother and child. Mortality rates before medical advances were horrific. Not sure why anyone would want to go back to that?
(From personal experience, I was born by emergency caesarean after cord prolapse and no heartbeat. I'd be dead if there wasn't an operating suite a few metres down the corridor. Of my friends with babies (six between them), two ended with emergency caesareans, with no prior indication of complications, and another had complications that could have ended badly. Anecdotal, sure. But far from uncommon)
There is infant mortality within the hospital system too. And if a midwife or doctor in a hospital was negligent they should be held equally responsible as a midwife assisting in a home birth. Some women have had absolutely traumatising experiences in hospitals. Some women have lost their babies or their newborn has been injured in hospital settings. Some women choose home birth because they think it's safer than hospital. Nothing is perfect or risk free in life. Google the news in courier mail about newborn injured by midwife in hospital. Women who choose home birth are not doing it for selfish reasons.
Midwives and doctors operating in hospitals are already held responsible. Of course there is infant mortality in hospital settings - there are high risk births and not every situation can be gauranteed. But high risk pregnancies do not belong in a home birth environment. Was there still a risk that my baby and I could have died in the hospital? Yes, absolutely. But if I had chosen to home birth out of fear of a less than 'perfect' or peaceful birth the chances of my baby and I dying would have risen to 100%. I still choose my scary, painful, unnatural and intervention filled birth in a hospital with a live baby and live me at the end of it over a candle lit water birth at home with my husband grieving as he watched his wife and daughter die before his eyes because no ambulance would have been fast enough to save us when things suddenly went wrong.
Your experience in the hospital is not the same as every other woman's experience. You have no idea what some women have been through.