Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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856. To ask the Minister for Health his plans for facilitating home births and for ensuring that professional midwives that support women to have home births are facilitated in doing so. [37106/17]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The National Maternity Strategy - Creating A Better Future Together 2016 - 2026, recognises pregnancy and birth as a normal physiological process. It aims to ensure that appropriate care pathways are in place in order that mothers, babies and families get the right care, at the right time, by the right team and in the right place. Similarly, it recognises that, while all pregnant women need a certain level of support, some will require more specialised care. Accordingly, it proposes an integrated model of care that encompasses all the necessary safety nets in line with patient safety principles. The model consists of three care pathways - Supported, Assisted and Specialised. The Strategy envisages that home births will form part of the Supported Care pathway.