Maternity research scrap finds minister

Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter is demanding answers from the Ministry of Health after its apparent attempt to undermine a critical maternity study.

Stuff revealed yesterday how ministry officials aligned with the College of Midwives to discredit the findings of an Otago University study undertaken by Professor Diana Sarfati and Ellie Wernham. The research found differences in outcomes between midwife and doctor-led care.

This included the ministry sharing details of plans to cast doubt on the research, drafting a misleading and inaccurate press release obscuring the results, holding meetings with top university figures, and publicly questioning aspects of the study researchers had gone to lengths to explain.

Stuff also revealed the ministry appears not to have followed up on a November 2016 recommendation of the National Maternity Monitoring Group (NMMG) to establish a maternity research programme.

In February 2017, the ministry told the NMMG it was considering working with the Health Research Council (HRC) to commission research proposals in maternity, and had discussed research areas.

It then said it was forming a group to direct this work. But it did not produce any evidence this work had been done when asked this week.

Genter, who is also associate minister of health in charge of maternity, said she would be questioning Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield over the ministry’s treatment of both the Wernham study and Dr Bev Lawton’s 2016 research into perinatal mortality.

She would also be asking for an explanation about the research programme.

‘‘Given the significance of the issues, we need to know we are relying on the very best information, research, and assessment available and I expect the ministry to provide reassurance around that.’’

She acknowledged concerns around the ministry’s handling of the research, and said making sure mothers and babies received the best care was critically important.

‘‘I would certainly want to address any systemic issues having a negative impact on mums and babies.’’

The Wernham study found higher risks of poor outcomes for babies in midwife-led care. It said midwifery-led care could be optimal within well-organised systems, but there was an urgent need to evaluate what made them more or less safe.

Otago University Professor Peter Crampton, then the head of Otago University’s Medical School, said the response at the time was disquieting. ‘‘There should have been more high quality research set up to explore the issues that were raised, and we should have been doing this from day one. The chilling effect of the response to the results basically means this hasn’t happened.’’

The ministry this week said it had not underplayed the results of the research.