For so clearly and succinctly summarising the true crux of the homebirth in Australia crisis. Most of all thank-you for doing so in a major Australian newspaper.
You can read Monica's article here:
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/its-a-womans-right-to-choose-how-she-births-20090715-dlgs.html?page=-1
I particularly enjoyed her pointing out that the President of the National Association of Specialist Obstetricians and Gynaecologists assumes the rights of minorities don't matter because they're in the minority! Monica also brought the issue of dignity in birth to the fore:
"Birthing is an extremely intimate, uniquely visceral, sometimes terrifying physical experience. There is much that will inevitably be out of a woman's control during her confinement, so allowing her to birth in the place in which she is most comfortable is fundamental to maintaining both her personal dignity and her sense of ownership over the experience."
A woman's dignity is far from the minds of many when it comes to birth because as a culture we assume that birth is essentially undignified. Birth need not be an experience without dignity for women, if only those present in the birth space served women, rather than managed them.
She concluded the opinion piece with:
"Such a paternalistic provision, effectively telling women what is and isn't good for them, cuts to the heart of women's collective dignity and autonomy. While women were once routinely patronised in this way, the contemporary assumption is that those bad old days are behind us. Sadly, this does not appear to be the case when it comes to birthing."
Which immediately brought this image to my mind:
If anyone has a link to where this photo was originally uploaded so I can credit the photographer please leave details in the comments section.
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