Mags GarganDoctors have called on the Minister for Health to make provision for access to better support for families around the time of childbirth, so that babies with a life-threatening illness can receive standardised care “from the very beginning to the very end of life”.
A motion for the provision of perinatal palliative care nationally, put forward by Dr John Kehoe, a GP based in Naas, Co. Kildare, received majority support at the AGM of Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) over the weekend.
“As a GP I see how conditions are diagnosed, and what is said and how it is dealt with is immensely important for parents facing a situation where their unborn children may or may not have a serious or life threatening illness,” Dr Kehoe told The Irish Catholic.
Midwives
“Many individual doctors and midwives are doing their very best, but in other centres there are different attitudes to both parents and babies.
“We need a system of standards and protocols in place across the country for psychological, emotional and medical care at the highest standard, just like with adult palliative care,” he said.
“It’s about extending that to the earliest stages of life, from the very beginning to the very end of life.”