Home birth midwife Ann Ó Ceallaigh: claims ideological opposition to home births behind challenges

After 16 years of battling against the medical establishment, numerous trips to the High and Supreme Courts, a few notable triumphs and a final crushing defeat, home birth midwife Ann Ó Ceallaigh is ready to throw in the towel. “I’m shattered. I could have appealed it but I don’t have the money or the energy or the time,” she says of the High Court’s decision to uphold a finding of professional misconduct against her. “I don’t want to lose my house. I just want peace.”

Shattered maybe, but also unrepentant: “I did nothing wrong, and the mothers and fathers of the babies I have delivered know that I have done nothing wrong.” (Times) >