Overview

• Dr Veronica Moule testified that her sole 12-week consultation deemed the mother a potential home birth candidate despite her prior Caesarean and macrosomic first child.
• Bendigo Health offered the mother a 36-week obstetric appointment for a high-risk assessment, but she declined, calling the invitation a “box-ticking exercise.”
• The mother, a former midwife, said hospital risk warnings felt like fearmongering and that she trusted her own research and private midwives.
• Two private midwives who attended Baby R’s home birth now face AHPRA restrictions and have signaled they may object to giving evidence over civil liability fears.
• The inquest will examine whether communication breakdowns or lapses in guideline adherence contributed to the perinatal hypoxia that led to Baby R’s death six days after birth.