Don't attempt childbirth at home without medical supervision, says expert

The star

BY LOH FOON FONG
foonfong@thestar.com.my

PETALING JAYA: Childbirth is a serious and potentially dangerous matter and pregnant mothers must not attempt unsupervised birth at home, the Obstetrical & Gynaecological Society of Malaysia warns following the death of Ang Lay Chin who has opted for homebirth.

Hitting out at pro-homebirth groups for advocating homebirth without medical supervision, president Dr Tang Boon Nee said that it was unfortunate that the advice often went unheeded.

“The seminars on various pro home-childbirths were often conducted by mothers themselves who had gone through homebirths and believe that every other births should be the same.

“As it is unfortunately evident, mothers can die from childbirth, especially one which is assisted by unqualified assistants who have only seen few births, and do not recognise the signs of problems,” she said in a press statement yesterday.

Dr Tang was commenting after the death of Ang, 40, who had suffered excessive blood loss after giving birth to her first child in her house in Sri Kembangan, Selangor, on Nov 13, the Kwong Wah Yit Poh reported.

She said that medical supervision in childbirth was needed as complications could arise, resulting in devastating outcomes.

“In the event of excessive bleeding after childbirth, we have a ‘window of opportunity’ to stop the bleeding, using intravenous drip, medication to contract the uterus and physical maneuvres to reduce bleeding,” she said.

In the event of vaginal tears causing bleeding, to bring the patient into operating theatre to repair tears and stem bleeding, she added.

“Unfortunately, if the bleeding has gone on for some time, that window of opportunity is lost, resulting in the loss of a life,” she said.

Dr Tang said that a lot of homebirth advocates were not qualified nurses or doctors, and had not seen the complications that can arise from childbirth.

She said that Malaysia was seen as a model as a forerunner in reducing maternal mortality.

The doctors and nurses in Malaysia had worked tirelessly to reduce maternal mortality from childbirth to 28 per 100,000 from hundreds per 100,000 many years ago and was saddened to hear of another maternal death, she said.

“One of the most important aspects of this effort is to make available safe environments for childbirths, be it in a district, state, general or private hospitals, supervised by qualified medical and nursing staff,” she said.

Dr Tang said that childbirth educators must have the necessary qualifications if they were to conduct homebirth classes.