The Mother of All Rallies

Over two thousand women, men and children gathered in Canberra on Monday to protest the Australian government's attempt to outlaw homebirth midwifery. My toddler and I were just two amongst the pack. We all woke to a very wet capital city and grey skies. Though inconvenient, it felt fitting that the weather should be so dark and gloomy when so many of us were in the same place feeling angry, sad, hurt and afraid for our birthing futures and those of our daughters.

I came to Canberra the day before the rally because that evening there was a dinner for all the Joyous Birth members staying in Canberra. Joyous Birth is an Australian feminist homebirth network (it also has members living outside of Australia). Through the network's online forums members keep in touch and support one another through pregnancy, birth, healing after birth trauma and birth rape, and parenting. The dinner was an opportunity to meet members whom I "knew" from reading about their lives online. It was quite moving to finally be able to put people to usernames and to make eye contact and touch these women while conversing with them.

Me & Kimba (who is a fabulous jazz singer, homebirther and she distributes baby carriers)

At the dinner there was a circus performance for the children outside and after the circus we enjoyed some speeches. Fleur Magick, an Indigenous woman spoke about birth, human rights and her experiences. It was very moving. Fleur acknowledged the lack of quality of life for Indigenous Australians and how the right to homebirth can't come before a right to safe housing. She said that for many Indigenous women hospital birth is the preferred option because it gives them somewhere safe to live for a couple of days.

She also spoke about the link between Indigenous Australians and the land. The placenta is very important to her people and after birth one of their cultural rituals is to bury the placenta. She spoke about the struggle to get her first child's placenta back from the hospital in order to perform this sacred ritual. Years later and she is fighting a losing battle against a mining company who are going to desecrate the sacred land where her son's placenta is buried.

Finally, she spoke about her second child's birth. She did not return to hospital. She stayed home. Hers was a bush birth because the land is her people's home. She talked about her connection to the land during birth and about the animals knowing and understanding birth. The animals emerged from the bush and sat around her, witnessing those precious moments with her.

To conclude she sang a song in her traditional tongue. Words cannot describe how it feels to be present for something so....special...I was so moved by her reflections and insights and her ancient voice that I wept.

Following Fleur, Janet Fraser, founder of Joyous Birth, spoke. She thanked Fleur for speaking and said that she was overwhelmed by the generosity of our Indigenous sisters, I understood completely. Then she began talking about feminist struggles and protests. The moment that stood out for me was when she said "If they're going to take our rights, they can look us in the eye while they do". It was a powerful reminder of why it mattered that we be there, even if the power-holders win and we lose legal homebirth midwifery.

There was also chanting, led by a mother and her home born and home schooled daughter. The following day at the protest this chant would be sung by many as we marched to Parliament house.

As we stood outside listening to these wise women speak I looked up at the black sky. A full orange moon hung close to the ground. It was bitterly cold, babies snug in slings against their parent's chests, noses running, the spring has just barely sprung here in Australia. But if goosebumps had not already risen across my skin, they surely would have when I saw the moon that lit our gathering.

People began to call it a night shortly after the speeches. When the crowd had thinned one Dad took out his guitar and played the song he wrote about his daughter's homebirth. Towards the end of his song his daughter laid under his chair, looking up and him, talking in her sweet little toddler voice, making him smile.

The morning of the rally we woke to a dreary and wet day. This was the view that greeted us when we booked into our hotel on Sunday, a day that we did not need to be outside:

And this was the view that greeted us Monday morning, the day of our protest:

The rally began at 10:45am at The Aboriginal Tent Embassy, located out the front of Old Parliament House. Here Fleur Magick and her family welcomed the homebirth protesters with a special ceremony. My toddler was in need of my attention during this ceremony so I was not able to be a part of the ceremony as I would have dearly loved. I managed to get a couple of photos from outside the circle.

Thankfully I know a generous and talented photographer who is happy for me to share the photos she took of the ceremony (thanks again, Kristie):

From The Tent Embassy we marched up the hill to Parliament house. Despite the depressing weather and our government trampling on our rights there was an atmosphere of cheer among our diverse group of protesters.

As we approached Parliament house I looked at the friend I travelling with and saw that her face was red from crying, she caught my eye and explained "I am just SO angry that I have to be here". She was not alone in her anger or her sadness. There might have been two thousand other people standing around her who felt the same, but there were even more people elsewhere who could not make it to the rally. When we got home and shared the photos with friends on facebook those who could not make it to the rally thanked us, they were moved to tears by the efforts of those who did fight for their rights and the rights of their daughters in the cold and in the rain, at great financial cost, while parenting our little ones after long journeys. Some of these people even sent messages to be displayed on the lawn out the front of Parliament house in their stead:

We marched as far as the federal police would allow. There was a stage set up there where the speakers stood. Sadly the sound system was poor quality so I did not hear much of the speeches at all. The crowd was so thick that I was not able to see the stage either!

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Instead I hung back around the edges of the crowd, wandering, getting photos of the great home made banners and t-shirts featuring witty, humours and powerful messages. The most powerful shirt I saw was Kristie's "Victim of the System" shirt:

In contrast was this man's shirt, which made me laugh out loud:

It was a sea of umbrellas and banners. One banner featured a pun that I greatly appreciated:

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Roxon is the surname of Australia's Federal Health Minister who has become the face of the legislation set to outlaw homebirth midwifery.

The most powerful and emotive poster I saw on the day was made by one Joyous Birth member featuring two very different birth photos:

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A picture truly is worth a thousand words!

There were a couple of tents set up at the site of the rally, one where a protesters could buy home made badges, another where people were selling sandwiches and bottles of water. The Australian Breastfeeding Association ran a feed and change table where parents could come to change their children's nappies out of the rain and sit down to breastfeed:

There was also a bus featuring pro-homebirth art and slogans that was being driven around the block repeatedly throughout the rally, horn sounding in support of the protest.

During the rally one of my friends came over to tell me that she had heard there was a police blockade down the hill which was stopping more people from attending the rally, though I have not heard anything more on this.

Another friend informed me that a heavily pregnant mother had gone into labour. While many passersby thought it amusing to tell the woman how fortunate she was to give birth in the one place in Australia you could be sure you had the most skilled midwives present, it was not so amusing to the mother who was concerned that the federal police would call her an ambulance. Of course birthing bodies are very wise and the baby was not born at the rally, as per the mother's wishes. Her labour gave her plenty of time to get home and rested.

Towards the end of the rally one of the speakers on the stage announced that our efforts had caused the politicians sitting in Parliament at that time to re-open the debate about the homebirth legislation! This news was met with cheering from the crowd. This is what one politician had to say and this is what another had to say during the re-opened debate on Monday.

I left the rally around 2pm to catch my flight home (which was packed with homebirthers and breastfed babies!). There was minimal news coverage of the protest, SBS, the world-news style free to air channel in Australia apparently reported on the rally, though I have not been able to see it myself. There were articles in a couple of Australian newspapers the day of the rally and on Tuesday (linked at the bottom of this post).

The night after the rally a vote was held in parliament on whether the midwives bill should be passed. There were more "ayes" than "nos" but the politicians called for an adjournment and it was decided (as most of the politicians bolted from the room) that a third reading would be held on the issue (click here for definitions of terms and process of voting in Australia's House of Representatives)

More Photos From My Save Homebirth Rally Experience

While waiting for my flight to board I discovered that some of my homebirthing friends were on the same flight. We sat together talking birth, breasts out for our children, attracting looks from the other passengers:

The only photo of me in my freebirther shirt at the rally, shortly after it was taken my daugher took up residence on my front in the mei tai:

(taken by the talented Carly)
My friend breastfeeding her homeborn daughter at the protest:

My daughter sleeping soundly as 2000 people fight for her right to choose where she gives birth in the future.

I had the pleasure of meeting two incredible midwives, whose blogs I have been loyally following for years. Lisa Barrett and Ela Forest are the kind of midwives that have been around longer than laws, true with-womens and a far cry from the obstetric nurses that you find left, right and centre in this broken maternity system of ours:

I ran into a friend I had not seen in years. The last time we were together we were getting drunk in celebration of graduation. Years later and we are wearing matching baby carriers and home born daughters:

While all of the protestors were inconvenienced by the rally, travelling from all over Australia with our children in tow, some of us had travelled just that little bit further. Nat came all the way from Japan:

Some of the protestors who came to show their support for homebirth midwives and the women who hire them were freebirthing women who prefer not to hire midwives to attend them during labour. These freebirthers, like Jess, understand that when the rights of one group of the homebirth sisterhood are under attack, we're all under attack:

This family of four came from Tasmania to attend the rally. They have been a very busy family promoting homebirth from their island at the bottom of Australia. Both Dad and their eldest child have been writing songs about homebirth.

Shae came to the rally with her most recent homeborn child strapped to her, while her two older ones stayed warm and dry in the birth space (aka at home) with Dad.

Footage from the rally

Greens Senator Rachel Siewert speaks at rally:


Andrew Laming MP (and former Obstetrician) speaking at rally










Australian Labor Party (the government) senator attempts to justify her party's position. Thankfully the MC rebuffs beautifully at the end

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

News Articles about the rally

Thousands rally for homebirthing rights - ABC News
Pro-homebirth rally held in Canberra - The Age
Mother of all home-birth rallies - The Age
Roxon a "no show" at Home Birth rally - Senatory Fielding

Other People's Blog Posts about the rally

Saving Homebirth - Owlet
Rally Thoughts - Midwife Mutiny
The Mother of All Rallies - Majikfaerie
Canberra Homebirth Rally - A Son & 3 Moons
Mother of all Rallies - Around Arthur's Table...
The Mother of All Rallies! Canberra 2009 - Lavendilly House
Mother of All Rallies, Canberra in Pictures - Snaps & Blabs
Homebirth Rights Rally - House of Pink
More Than 2000 People Protest - midwivesVictoria
Media from Rally - midwivesVictoria