Cash for sex selection treatment ruled out

A South Auckland couple want taxpayer funding for sex-selection fertility treatment following the death of their baby girl after a badly managed labour.

Heather and Alan Phillips said that, in this way, the state could help them after they lost their baby Tyla at Middlemore Hospital last August.

But Health Minister Pete Hodgson has said no to this and to their call in yesterday's Herald - supported by the National Party - for an inquiry into maternity services.

And the Midwifery Council says that New Zealand's "maternity outcomes [are] amongst the best in the world".

Tyla Phillips died just over 7 1/2 hours after she was born by emergency caesarean operation at Middlemore. She suffered oxygen deprivation and brain damage.

The hospital said the caesarean should have been done up to three hours earlier. If it had been, the outcome for Tyla might have been different.

It acknowledged the mis-reading of a fetal heart rate monitor by midwives and, after a registrar reviewed the monitoring record, needless testing of the fetal blood-acid level.

The Phillips want an inquiry into maternity care and midwifery because of similarities between Tyla's case and others, after which official reports criticised midwives, and in one instance a registrar too.

Mrs Phillips, now 33, took 3 1/2 years to conceive Tyla - her first child and Mr Phillips' third. Because of that they sought Middlemore's help to go to Australia for sex-selection fertility treatment so they could have another girl.

Mr Hodgson said it would be wrong to give them taxpayer money for a treatment which was illegal in New Zealand and under review in Australia.

He again dismissed holding an inquiry into maternity services, which he said were of a high standard, although he noted several improvements planned or under way.

Midwifery Council chair Dr Sally Pairman said the council implemented compulsory continuing education last April, but midwives had done it voluntarily beforehand. It was also reviewing pre-registration midwifery education.

Calls for a maternity inquiry have been made repeatedly since Wellington coroner Garry Evans did so in November after his inquests into the deaths of two babies.

Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists president Dr Ken Clark said a full review was unnecessary, but changes were needed to re-engage doctors in maternity, to enhance women's safety and choice.

The National Party's health spokesman, Tony Ryall, said the Government must order an inquiry as "this problem is not going to go away".

"Every month there are more frightening incidents coming to light ... How many more babies will die before they realise the current system is flawed?" he asked.

"This should be a proper independent audit with full terms of reference, not an internal snow-job that fails to ask the tough questions or hold anyone to account."