Homebirth Awareness Week

Oct 24th - 31st is Homebirth Awareness Week. The silence on the future of homebirth in Australia has been deafening since the protest rally held in September. But the lack of noise is not an indication that all is well. The government have been moving forward with their plans to restrict women's birthing rights, quietly. I am reminded of Sylvia Plath's poem Mushrooms:

Overnight, very
Whitely, discreetly,
Very quietly

Our toes, our noses
Take hold on the loam,
Acquire the air.

Nobody sees us,
Stops us, betrays us;
The small grains make room.

Soft fists insist on
Heaving the needles,
The leafy bedding,

Even the paving.
Our hammers, our rams,
Earless and eyeless,

Perfectly voiceless,
Widen the crannies,
Shoulder through holes. We

Diet on water,
On crumbs of shadow,
Bland-mannered, asking

Little or nothing.
So many of us!
So many of us!

We are shelves, we are
Tables, we are meek,
We are edible,

Nudgers and shovers
In spite of ourselves.
Our kind multiplies:

We shall by morning
Inherit the earth.
Our foot's in the door.

South Australian with-woman Lisa Barrett wrote in her most recent blog post The Latest in Australia:

While I've been away there were lots of meetings in Canberra on the future of midwifery with the government committees involved. The participants had to sign a confidentiality agreement. How dare the government do this. Not only are they meeting behind closed doors but nobody at the meeting can say what has happened. Until the stuff is signed, sealed and delivered the midwives and women have no clue of what is going on. So what, there is a consumer rep and midwife rep. If the rest of us don't know what is happening at the meeting how can we tell if our voices are being heard.

Despicable, isn't it? But unsurprising. At no point in this entire process, since the 2008 maternity services review were the government interested in the voices of homebirthing families/consumers.

In their press release for Homebirth Awarenes Week (Celebrate or Commiserate? Minister’s Weakness and Bureaucrats Ignorance Continues) Homebirth Australia states:

"Mainstream Australian maternity care is not about women, women are rarely consulted in the development of services, they are the main player and yet they have been silenced by practitioners who insist they ‘know better’ said Ms Caines.

Homebirth on the other hand is different. Women make decisions about their care, they invite a midwife into their home, rather than be forced to meet the needs of practitioners and organisational convenience which happens when giving birth in a hospital” said Ms Caines

“The outcomes from homebirth are also considerably better. Women experience more personalised care and fewer interventions, they also enter motherhood happier and more content.” said Ms Caines

Something that is considered a normal reasonable choice in the U.K, The Netherlands, New Zealand, and Canada is under threat of extinction in Australia"

For readers living in Melbourne and surrounds I can tell you of two upcoming meetings for homebirth activists wishing to keep the momentum going:

Tomorrow night - Wednesday October 28
7pm Selby Community House
Minak Reserve, Wombalana Rd (off charles st) Selby

A friend of mine sent me these details with a paragraph stating "Come join in the discussion of the facts, the background, and the present issues affecting us all. Presented by midwives Clare Lane and Nicola Dutton. Light supper provided. Gold coin donation."

And:

Sat 31st Oct
1030am~1230md
Australian Catholic University
115 Victoria Pde, Fitzroy
Contact: ballarat@maternitycoalition.org.au

That makes two great ways to spend your Homebirth Awareness Week. For a third why not check out Janet Fraser's new blog: http://janetfraser.id.au/blog/ "Where Birth and Feminist Intersect". In addition to some really insightful critiques of current Western maternity services, Janet has some great humour, especially on her page "Homebirth for Dummies".