Philomena Canning (19 September 1959 – 22 March 2019) was an Irish midwife and advocate for

natural birth Natural childbirth is childbirth without routine medical interventions, particularly anesthesia. Natural childbirth re-emerged in opposition to the medical model of childbirth that is common in industrialized societies. Natural childbirth attempts ...

in Ireland and internationally. She advocated for the right for Irish women to give birth at home or in non-medical settings.

Advocacy work

Philomena Canning was from Glenvar,

County Donegal County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...

, and early in her career worked as a midwife in the

Australian Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass ...

and Saudi Arabia. She served as chair of an abortion advocacy group, Midwives for Choice in Ireland. In 2014, Canning's indemnity licence was withdrawn without notice as the cases of two women had come to the attention of the

Health Service Executive The Health Service Executive (HSE) () is the publicly funded healthcare system in Ireland, responsible for the provision of health and personal social services. It came into operation on 1 January 2005. The current director-general is Berna ...

(HSE). Neither of the women had complained, and the action was taken weeks after she had submitted a detailed application to the HSE to open two home birth centres in

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. Her indemnity was restored in February 2015 but she was unable to practise until the HSE carried out a system analysis. She was eventually declared free to practice in 2016 but by then she said that her business and reputation had been gravely undermined by the delays and false accusations. The HSE offered her a settlement after she initiated a damages case but she pressed to have the case heard in court to expose what were described as "serious injustices" in her treatment. Further delays followed and she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer which then spread to her abdomen in 2018. She subsequently made a decision to settle the case as she was unable to afford to buy immunotherapy drugs to treat the terminal disease. Previously she had sold her house as she was unable to keep up mortgage repayment due to the ongoing issues affecting her work. The case was the subject of a protest outside the

Dáil Éireann Dáil Éireann ( ; , ) is the lower house and principal chamber of the Oireachtas, which also includes the president of Ireland and a senate called Seanad Éireann.Article 15.1.2° of the Constitution of Ireland reads: "The Oireachtas shall co ...

in February 2019. In March 2019 the case was settled. In a statement, Canning said the settlement was a "relief". Canning died of ovarian cancer on 22 March 2019, while seeking treatment at St. Vincent's Private Hospital in Dublin.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Canning, Philomena Health professionals from County Donegal Irish midwives 2019 deaths Deaths from ovarian cancer Deaths from cancer in the Republic of Ireland 1959 births