by Ronan McSherry
YOUNG women have been urged to support a campaign for Tyrone babies as child births have moved to Fermanagh and Armagh since the closure of maternity services in Omagh and Dungannon.
A number of public meetings will take place next week organised by the Western Health and Social Services Board in order to gauge the feasibility of the establishment of a Community Midwifery unit in the Omagh area. The results will submitted to the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) in December.
The meetings will take place next Monday (November 5) in Newtownstewart and Omagh with a further gathering in Irvinestown on Tuesday evening.
Monica Coyle, Chairperson for Omagh Forum for Rural Associations is a former midwife. She is supporting the campaign for the establishment of a maternity facility in Omagh. "This will be a maternity facility in Omagh only led by midwifes, with no doctor," she said. "There is not a problem with skilled midwives and there are plenty of them travelling to Enniskillen and Craigavon to work everyday. Approximately 85% to 90% of babies are delivered by midwives anyway in the hospitals with no medical or obstetric intervention. There are many healthy pregnant women plus the fact during the ante-natal period it is quite easy to detect if there is going to be problems at delivery time. They would be forewarned whether a doctor was needed and you would have the previous history of how they got on with previous pregnancies. I would imagine quite a few of the people being delivered now if they ever missed the hospital could easily have their baby in a midwifery led unit provided that there was proper protocol and a proper standby ambulance in case there was any complications."
Mrs Coyle proposes the obvious location for the new unit is the Tyrone County Hospital. She added, "There is bound to be space there as they have closed so much of it. The advantage would be we would have Tyrone babies. I think that is important to people as a sense of identity. Tyrone is the largest county and there is no maternity service in it of any kind. It is a bit ridiculous.
"Also, you would not have to travel so far. I live in Greencastle and if I had to go to hospital it would take me at least one hour to get there. You have to Craigavon or Enniskillen and Magherafelt is also being closed. It would make a big difference regards to travelling."
The former midwife called for support for the return of the maternity service to Omagh. "It is important that people go to these meetings. Maybe some people think this is another mad idea that somebody has come up with but it certainly is not a mad idea. This has been asked for by the Minister of Heath. I would particularly encourage young women to get out on Monday and let their views and voices be heard."
The meetings are taking place in; Newtownstewart 2000 centre, 10am on Monday. Book with Eileen 8166 2588;
Strule Arts Centre, Omagh at 7.30pm on Monday. Book with Mandy at 8225 1559; Arc Health Living Centre, Sallywood, Irvinestown at 7.30pm on Tuesday. Book with Frances on 6632 7006. Prior booking is recommended.
