Former Adelaide midwife Lisa BARRETT has been found guilty of professional misconduct and fined $20,000 after being involved in a number of home births where babies died.

The Health Practitioners Tribunal of South Australia also banned Ms BARRETT from working as a midwife, including the provision of almost any services to pregnant women and their babies.  It found that while she had relinquished her midwifery registration in 2011, she had continued to provide services akin to midwifery.  The findings follow a coronial inquest in South Australia into the deaths of three infants between 2007 and 2011 where Ms BARRETT was involved in supervising high-risk home births.  The Coroner found that all three babies would have lived had they been born in hospital by caesarean section.  He had also been made aware of another death in Western Australia where Ms BARRETT had been involved with the birth.

In its judgment the Tribunal found that Ms BARRETT’s conduct was substantially below the standard reasonably expected of registered midwives of her level of training and experience and amounted to professional misconduct.  It said the protection of the public was its paramount consideration and for that reason only health practitioners suitably trained and qualified to practice in a competent and ethical manner were entitled to be registered.

“The respondent is reprimanded in the strongest terms,” the judgment said.
AAP