Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Okay. With regard to the issue of safety zones, I want to speak briefly about my lived experience in this regard. I have five children and I have attended the births of all of my children. Unfortunately, as I set out here yesterday and before, in the case of one of my children, she did not survive in the delivery suite, and my little daughter died by way of a cord accident at full term during delivery. Unlike all of the other deliveries, this was a completely silent event. I cannot speak highly enough of the midwives and the medical staff in the Coombe Hospital. My daughter, Liadain, would have been 21 years old this week had she survived.

As a little family, we found ourselves in that situation. What happens is that the midwives bring you to a side room with your little baby to give you some time to spend with her. Another thing was that they had a little Polaroid Instamatic camera so we could take a photograph of our little baby before she was taken away to the mortuary for whatever procedures they undertake there. I had brought a babygrow for my daughter. I remember it was white and it had little red hearts on it; I still have it. She was so tiny and so small that she could not fit in it, so the midwives had a little piece of curtain material and they made a little dress for her and we dressed her in it, with a little safety pin, and we took pictures with the Polaroid camera. These are things you would not think of in a situation like that. After a period of time had elapsed, the midwives told me to take my time with my daughter, Liadain, the grey lady. They had a little wicker basket and they said, “When you are ready, put her into the little wicker basket and you can put a towel on top and bring her to the nurses’ station.” That is what we did. Eventually, I put my little daughter into this wicker basket, put the towel on and then walked to the nurses’ station. You are passing by expectant mums and families in the corridor, and they are walking up and down and breathing, and you are walking past with all your hopes and dreams in a little basket. When you get to the nurses station, they know this situation because they have seen it. Actually, I think they see it every day because one in four pregnancies end in stillbirth.

My point here is that for people who seek the services of obstetricians, gynaecologists, midwives and so on, it is not as it is presented in popular culture, in Hollywood or by people who perhaps have not been in that space. It is not an environment where you want to encounter any kind of protest or any kind of intervention, whether that be silent prayer or any of the other means that are set out in the Act. I accept that Senator Mullen has an ideological perspective, a deeply felt religious, philosophical and moral position on the protection of the unborn, and I understand that argument and accept it.