"When a government becomes powerful, it is destructive, extravagant and violent; it is an usurper which takes bread from innocent mouths and deprives honorable men of their substance for votes with which to perpetuate itself." - Cicero
"Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force." - George Washington
"In all that people can do for themselves, the government ought not to interfere." - Abraham Lincoln
"The most cogent reason for restricting the interference of government is the great evil of adding unnecessarily to its power." - John Stuart Mill
"The government's role is whatever the government defines it to be." - Helen Clark

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Review Kiwi Pundit

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Maternity Services

Wellington hospital, especially the maternity unit, has come under attack after a woman went home five hours after giving birth and her baby tragically died later that night.

As it happens, Mrs Kiwi Pundit gave birth to our first child in the very same hospital five days earlier. Our experience couldn't have been more different. We did have a specialist rather than a midwife as our lead carer. Actually we had Dr John Tait, who is the Clinical Director of Womens Health at Wellington Hospital and has been quoted in the media in response to the above incident. There is no comparison between a midwife and a doctor of the quality of Dr Tait. It is fairly expensive to hire your own specialist, while a midwife is paid for by taxpayers, but if you can afford it there aren't too many more worthwhile things to spend your money on.

The care we received from the hospital midwives was also excellent. Our daughter was induced so we were in the delivery unit for four hours before contractions began and a further ten hours until the baby was born. The labour lasted eight hours and a midwife was by my wife's side for most of that time. We stayed almost two days after the birth with no hint from the hospital staff that we should go home. In fact, I got the impression they would have liked us to stay longer. Once we expressed a desire to go home, they got a pediatrician to check out the baby before we left. We've also had a midwife visiting the house every couple of days.

Back to the original issue, I am skeptical that there is cause and effect here except in the obvious sense that anyone is going to be treated faster if they are already in a hospital when a medical emergency occurs. If the baby is fine when born, the main reason to keep mothers in hospital after birth is to look after the health of the mother and ensure breast feeding is properly established. That is why first time mothers stay longer, not so much because the baby might stop breathing in the first couple of days after birth.

The other issue here is that district health boards don't run hospitals in the way that boards of directors run companies. With no control over pricing or staffing costs and only very limited control over what services are provided and how work is done, their management options are severely limited. The health boards are really just there to take the blame when things go wrong, while the major decisions are made by politicians and ministry bureaucrats.