MOTHERS and babies are being put at risk at Gold Coast University Hospital because of a push to have a natural birth “at all costs”.
Emails between senior staff obtained by the Bulletin reveal a disturbing split among doctors and midwives who are at loggerheads over the right level of intervention during a woman’s labour process.
Two midwifery heads have resigned in recent weeks and it is believed complaints have been made to the national medical board.
While the hospital has one of the lowest caesarean rates in the country, doctors say women are being put at risk of uterine rupture and maternal death by being allowed to birth naturally when clinically recommended not to do so.
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“I feel that this is a failure from the medical profession of counselling high-risk patients and a culture of trying to achieve a vaginal birth at all costs,” an email from an obstetrician says.
“Although the journey may be important we are in danger of losing sight of good outcomes not only for maternal psyche but also maternal morbidity and certainly for the unborn child.”
Health insiders say the hospital’s resuscitation rate and need for special care for newborns following complications is too high.
One specialist said the neonatal resuscitation score was a good indication of how well labour had been looked after.
“It’s not something that should be a frequent occurrence if you’re paying close attention to things,” the doctor said.
Gold Coast Health executive director of operations Jane Hancock yesterday would not confirm the rate, only saying, “Our main aim is to keep a woman and her baby safe, with any resuscitation of a newborn, including the involvement of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, based on the requirements of each baby.”
As many as 4500 babies are expected to be born at the hospital this year as it copes with an increase of women from Brisbane to northern NSW who want to give birth at the new facility.
“The midwives on the floor have been extremely unhappy because of how busy they’ve been,” a midwife said.
“They’ve been putting pressure on management to get more staff.”
Gold Coast Medical Association president Dr Gary Swift, a private obstetrician who works publicly, said there were risky cases he would refuse to take on in private practice but doctors’ hands were tied in the public system.
“There is a culture of lowering the caesarean rate but sometimes there is a fine line between somebody who probably should have had a caesarean and didn’t and somebody who’s had a caesarean and may not have needed it,” he said.
Dr Swift said when GCUH become a tertiary level teaching hospital the service had to take on more complex cases.
“One of the downsides of being a tertiary hospital is you lose the ability to defer high- risk patients to other hospitals,” he said.
“Patients are contributing to higher risk workloads than what we’d like to deal with.”
The Bulletin understands complaints had been made to the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency about issues in the unit, however the agency would not confirm this.
Ms Hancock said the service was equipped to deal with high-risk cases and expectant mothers were provided with information on birth options.