Woman tells how birth procedure ruined her life

Ms Matilda Behan was "deligh- ted" when told she was being admitted to the National Maternity Hospital for a Caesarean section. In April 1958 she was 27 and in her previous two pregnancies the babies had not survived longer than a number of days.

"I thought it would be safest to have a section," she says. Ten days after being admitted she was taken to theatre, where she thought she was to have the section. However, the then Master of the hospital, Dr Charles Coyle, sawed through her pelvis.

Ms Behan told a conference in Dublin yesterday of the impact the procedure, known as symphysiotomy, has had on her.

The conference, held by the National Women's Council of Ireland, marked the establishment of an organisation for women who have also undergone the procedure. Survivors of symphysiotomy will "explore all avenues" for "getting justice for these women", a spokeswoman said.

It is unknown how many women underwent symphysiotomy, though the figure is estimated to be in the high hundreds "at least".

The conference heard calls for a public inquiry into why symphysiotomies were carried out when alternatives were available.

Mr John Gormley TD, in whose constituency Ms Behan lives, and who sits on the Oireachtas Committee for Health and Children, said the issue would be put on its agenda.

Symphysiotomies were carried out in maternity hospitals in the State between the 1940s and 1970s, when it was felt a woman's pelvis was too narrow to allow for the safe delivery of a big baby.

It involved sawing through the cartilage junction of the pubic bone so it might "open like a hinge" in childbirth.

Though Caesarean sections were routinely carried out in other countries in such instances, Irish Catholic obstetricians at the time believed Irish women might be tempted to seek sterilisation or contraception after several sections.

The practice "had more to do with upholding religious dogma than good medical practice", Mr Gormley said.

Ms Behan said she was held on the operating table by force. "A nurse held each arm and two more held each leg. 'In the name of God,' I said, 'what are you doing?' but no one answered me.

"The saw, it was like the little wheel on a bike for the chain. I had a local anaesthetic, but I was awake through it. The pain? It was excruciating," she said. "I was just held down like I was just a cow. My whole person was violated, like as if I was raped."

Other women, from Cork, Drogheda and other parts of the State, told their stories yesterday. They were neither consulted before nor received an explanation after by any doctor.

Ms Behan spent 18 days in bed, unable to walk, and gave birth normally to a girl, Bernadette. She went on to have three more babies, but has been incontinent and in constant pain since.

"I have lived on painkillers and sanitary towels. I couldn't do heavy housework. I had always loved life but became incapacitated - couldn't play with the children.

"The intimate side of my married life was over. I had three more babies, but I might as well have been single and so might my husband.

"I was fond of ballroom dancing and that was the end of that. All the things I took joy in were gone."

Survivors Of Symphysiotomy can be contacted at PO Box 8846, Dublin 4.