AIMS (The association for improvement of Maternity Services,) ARM (The Association of Radical Midwives) and Birthrights have written an open letter to the recipients of the Prevention of Future Deaths report written by the coroner who investigated the tragic deaths of Jennifer and Agnes Cahill in Manchester in 2024.
All of the members of Cheshire Home Birth Alliance join with the authors of the open letter to offer our condolences to their family who have suffered such a terrible double loss.
Cheshire Home Birth Alliance will ensure that the following requirements laid out in the letter, are referenced within our own campaigning and information resources:
"The decision to give birth at home is a human right and must be supported. What is needed is to make homebirth even safer by ensuring that in all areas of the country:
○ There is a properly resourced homebirth service, with trained and experienced midwives effectively supported by their midwifery management team.
○ All those who want to plan a homebirth have Continuity of Carer and a personalised care plan that includes consideration of how any problems that arise can be managed.
○ All maternity service users are given factual information on the actual risks in their personal circumstances. This should include the risks of hospital as well as homebirth.
○ There is adequate ambulance cover to respond rapidly if problems arise at a homebirth or freestanding birth centre. We hope that all women and birthing people will in future be safely supported wherever they choose to give birth."
Improving the safety and availability of Home Birth everywhere will improve the safety of all births, wherever they occur.
Cheshire Home Birth Alliance has signed the letter and encourages everyone who might read this to to do the same.
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