AN INDEPENDENT inquiry will be held into the practice of symphysiotomy in Irish maternity hospitals, the Department of Health has said.
Dr Oonagh Walsh, a senior research fellow in medical history at University College Cork, has been appointed as an independent academic researcher to carry out the work.
Symphysiotomy involved the severing of the symphysis joint to widen the pelvis during childbirth. Pubiotomy, another procedure used in some Irish hospitals, involved splitting the pubic bone for the same purpose.
The procedures were carried out on 1,500 women in Ireland from 1944 to 1992, according to a book on the subject launched yesterday, Bodily Harm: Symphysiotomy and Pubiotomy in Ireland 1944-92, by Marie O’Connor.
They left women with complications including walking difficulties, lifelong incontinence and lifelong pain.
In a statement, the Department of Health said it was Minister for Health James Reilly’s intention that Dr Walsh would carry out the work “on an objective and independent basis”.
The aim of the report would include providing an accurate picture of the extent of use of symphysiotomy in Ireland and an examination of the Irish practice relative to other countries.
Women who underwent the procedure had sought an independent inquiry into the surgery over a number of years. Former minister for health Mary Harney had asked the Institute of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to do its own report, but survivors had rejected the study as partial.
Speaking at the launch of her book, Ms O’Connor said symphysiotomy was carried out because the alternative, a Caesarean section, was seen as limiting the number of children a woman could have.
The book was launched by academic and feminist Germaine Greer.
She said there was “a place” for the procedure when performed properly and in particular circumstances. The World Health Organisation spelled out how to do the procedure, she added.
“From everything I can read and that’s not a lot, about what was done in Irish hospitals they didn’t do it that way,” she said.
“And as for pubiotomy, it’s not mentioned anywhere.
“It’s like a figment of the Irish imagination. It is obvious that is an immensely damaging procedure and there is no place for it anywhere in obstetrics.”
Marie Crean (64) from Ashford in Co Wicklow said she had a symphysiotomy in the National Maternity Hospital in 1972. The hospital never asked her permission and she was given no aftercare.
She has had “terrible trouble” with her hips and back and walking was difficult.
