A brief summary of each of the 73 events in 2023 was provided. Health NZ-Te Whatu Ora said more information couldn’t be released, including what city or hospital an incident occurred in, to protect patient privacy.
Health NZ also told the Herald that the incidents should be seen in the context of the 56,955 live births that happened in the 2023 calendar year.
“These events represent around 0.1% of the total number. Health NZ engaged directly with individuals’ concerns and addressed those with them directly.”
While the maths is correct and it is true that 73 incidents only represent a small percentage of the total number of births, it is important not to minimise the matter. Minimising the numbers risks normalising the tragic events.
Some of those incidents were entirely avoidable, such as a case of congenital (mother-to-baby) syphilis, which is preventable and risks stillbirth and perinatal death.
Other problems included two cases of delayed recognition of fetal distress, a delay in transfer, and a delay in realising a woman’s condition had deteriorated.
One maternal death in New Zealand is too many. There is no number of “serious maternity incidents” - whether fatal or not - that we should feel comfortable accepting, if we want a world-class healthcare system that we can be proud of.
The exclusive reporting by Jones makes for a sobering read, as it details multiple instances of mothers and babies in distress.
Current changes within Health NZ can be cause for further concern.
An internal consultation document proposed to get rid of the national maternity and early years programme Starting Well, reducing six dedicated roles to just one person, who would oversee all child and youth services, RNZ reported late last year.
The six roles were part of a proposed reduction of 25 fulltime roles that would be cut from Health NZ’s funding team, RNZ reported.
At the time, midwives warned that these cuts would further stretch an already overstretched system.
Too often we tell stories of midwife shortages meaning that our existing midwives are overworked, and pregnant people go without adequate care in New Zealand.
We tell stories of exhausted midwives who feel at breaking point, begging for additional resources so they can keep caring for those who need them. We tell stories of cuts to health services when those services were already trimmed.
Those are not the stories we should be telling. If we want Aotearoa to thrive, we must improve health outcomes for everyone, from even before birth.
For that, we must ensure that we provide our healthcare workers with the resources and support they need to keep us all safe, especially our most vulnerable.
