Letterkenny’s Regional Cultural Centre.
A multi-media exhibition by the Elephant Collective to commemorate women who have died in our maternity services is to be held at Letterkenny’s Regional Cultural Centre.
The event, which takes place from March 4th to 10th, 4-12 March starts with the launch of the Documentary Film ‘Picking up the Threads’ on 4th March, 3.30pm.
The exhibition commemorates the lives of the women who have died in our maternity services. Between 2007 and 2014, there were inquests for eight of these women, all of which ended in verdicts of death by medical misadventure.
The Elephant Collective, a group of educators, midwives and student midwives and birth activists, formed in 2014 with the aim of raising public awareness of:
* the tragedy of maternal death
* the need for legislation to ensure an automatic inquest following all maternal deaths
* the need for vastly improved disclosure of hospital and HSE reporting on tragic and adverse incidents in our maternity services to make then fully open to public scrutiny
We called ourselves The Elephant Collective because when the elephant is giving birth, the herd surrounds her to keep her and her calf safe.
The multi-media exhibition includes a knitted quilt, made by over one hundred contributors from across the island of Ireland and beyond, many of the small pieces for which came from Donegal.
Following the full screening of the documentary on the 4th March at 3.30pm., there will be
- a Question and Answer session with some of the widowers about what needs to happen to make our maternity services safer.
- portraits of the eight women who have had inquests following their maternal deaths
- a framed cross-stitch panel of the names of the eight women, made by local Donegal woman, Louise McCrossan
- a knit a stitch and keep the thread going work open to all who wish to contribute
- a row or two or more of knitting
yarn bombing contributions from Donegal and Derry - a national petition to the incoming Minister for Justice to secure the amendment for a legal inquest in the face of all maternal deaths
- the chance for groups to meet in the course of the exhibition and chat about what is needed to improve maternity service locally in Donegal
- Following Tania McCabe’s death in 2007, there was a major HSE investigation and a published report in 2008. Despite recommendations to improve maternity care substantially, these were not acted upon, and the deaths of other women occurred as the result of continuing lapses in care.
Disrespect and mistreatment of women, above all not listening to what women know about their needs and their care, is widespread in Irish maternity services. This holds true at the personal level, between women and the midwives and doctors meant to be caring for them. There are also systemic failures within our maternity units and within the HSE as a whole.
The widowers who have lost their wives and the mothers of their children can testify to these failures. The exhibit also honours the women who died and whose names we do not know, who are recorded only as statistics in annual clinical reports from our maternity units and hospitals.
There are countries in the EU who have significantly better maternal health outcomes than we have. We need greater accountability, a truly outstanding system of audit and genuine open disclosure. It is vital to have automatic inquests for all maternal deaths to help improve our maternity services.
Here in Donegal, Letterkenny General has a caesarean rate of almost 28%, above the national average, and the lowest rate of women breastfeeding exclusively on discharge, 33%, of any of the units in the west and northwest (figures gained from the HSE through Freedom of Information requests). These figures speak to the lack of continuity of carer, a failure to have one woman with the same one assigned midwife, from the beginning of pregnancy through the postnatal period to help build genuine health and wellness.
There is a chance to challenge poor care but it requires community actions.
In February, the Department of Health launched a national maternity strategy. The HSE has also announced that data on local maternity units and their services will now be released on a monthly basis. This means that women in Donegal can ask Letterkenny General what plans it has to improve women’s care under a health and wellness approach.
For example, can it show that all of its protocols and guidelines are gold-standard evidence-based care and are all fully up to date? Can it show the extent of continuing professional development courses laid on by hospital management for its staff and its commitment to ensuring staff meet all the requirements set nationally for staying up to date with evidence?
These are issues local groups might wish to explore while the exhibition is on.
For further information, contact: Jo Murphy-Lawless jlawless@tcd.ie or Doreen Fitzmaurice doreenfitz@hotmail.com
Find the Elephant Collective at https://www.facebook.com/The-Elephant-Collective-1662667163990925/ and https://twitter.com/el_collective where you can also view the trailer for the documentary: https://vimeo.com/147098420
The exhibition also has a Facebook Events Page: https://www.facebook.com/events/779112152221562/
Background Information
Tania McCabe – died 9 March, 2007, Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital
Evelyn Flanagan – died 19 October 19, 2007, Mayo General Hospital
Jennifer Crean – admitted to National Maternity Hospital, 30 June, 2008, transferred in a coma to Beaumont Hospital, 2 July, 2008, died 10 February, 2009
Bimbo Onanuga – died 4 March, 2010, transferred from Rotunda Hospital to the Mater Hospital
Dhara Kivlehan – transferred from Sligo General Hospital on 24 September, 2010
died 28 September, 2010, Belfast Royal Victoria Hospital
Nora Hyland – died 13 February, 2012, National Maternity Hospital
Savita Halappanavar – died 28 October, 2012, Galway University Hospital
Sally Rowlette – died 5 February, 2013, Sligo General Hospital
Groups who have contributed to the quilt
AIMSI, AIMS UK, Clare Birth Choice, Community Midwives Association
Cuidiú, Donegal Women’s Centre, Doula Association of Ireland
Gentle Birth Ireland, Home Birth Association of Ireland, HypnoBirthing Ireland
Kilkenny Library Knitting Circle, Letterkenny Breastfeeding Support Group
Midlands Birth Gathering Circle, Midwifery students, Trinity College Dublin
Neighbourhood Midwives, St. Johnstone Breastfeeding Support Group
Organising Members of the Elephant Collective
Fatimah Alaya, Doreen Fitzmaurice, Anne-Marie Green, Kate Harris, Julika Hudson, Martina Hynan, Caroline Kiernan, Ann Maxwell, Mary Moynihan, Jo Murphy-Lawless, Bridget Sheeran, Mary Smyth
