If Mum Can't Choose....?

Digital Homebirth Protest Flair

Please feel free to copy and share these on your own blogs and online forums.

click on this one to get it in another larger size

United We Homebirthers Stand, Divided We Fall

***Update 1/7/09. Since this post was written Home Birth Australia have removed the press release in question and replaced it with the following, far more inclusive press release:

Health Minister Denies Women their basic rights

NEWS RELEASE
Wednesday June 24 2009

Contact: Justine Caines 0408 210 273



Homebirth Australia today slammed the exclusion of homebirth from insurance schemes for midwives announced by the Health Minister Nicola Roxon in parliament today.

“Effectively two pieces of legislation will outlaw midwives providing homebirth care from July 2010” said Justine Caines, mother of seven and secretary of Homebirth Australia.

“Women will continue to homebirth, but will now be forced to do so without the assistance of a qualified professional.” said Ms Caines.

“It is unacceptable and unsafe to force a woman into a choice that is not optimal for her, whether that is a hospital birth or a birth at home without midwifery support. It is absolutely impossible to understand the government’s position on this, other than to say that they have bowed to political pressure from medical lobby groups.”

The National Maternity Service Review received submissions from hundreds of women wanting access to homebirth services. The vast majority of homebirth services are provided by private practice midwives. Removing this option is likely to end access for most women to homebirth.

Ms Caines called on all ALP members to declare their view on a woman’s right to self determination of her health care needs. “If the ALP is so hell bent on preventing women from accessing homebirth as an option I ask all ALP members to publically state their position on this.

It appears that having a Health Minister who is a woman, a recent mother, and a lawyer understanding consumers’ rights, is not proving to be an advantage for women. Removing women’s rights to the point where we are back providing care in dark alleys or in back rooms is ridiculous in 2009.”

Thank-you Home Birth Australia for listening to the concerns of your sisters. It is comforting to know that at least homebirthers are listening to each other. ***

Original post from 25/6/09:

Yesterday Homebirth Australia issued the following press release:

"Deaths will increase with new announcements

NEWS RELEASE
Wednesday June 24 2009


Homebirth Australia today slammed the exclusion of homebirth from insurance schemes for midwives announced by the Health Minister Nicola Roxon in parliament today.

“Effectively two pieces of legislation will outlaw midwives providing homebirth care from July 2010” said Justine Caines, mother of seven and secretary of Homebirth Australia.



“Women will continue to homebirth, but will now do so without the assistance of a qualified professional.” said Ms Caines. “The result will be an increase in deaths for mothers and babies, this is certain. It is absolutely impossible to understand the government’s position on this, other than to say that they have bowed to political pressure from medical lobby groups.”

The National Maternity Service Review received submissions from hundreds of women wanting access to homebirth services. The vast majority of homebirth services are provided by private practice midwives. Removing this option is likely to end access for most women to homebirth.

Ms Caines called on all ALP members to declare their view on a woman’s right to self determination of her health care needs. “If the ALP is so hell bent on preventing women from accessing homebirth as an option I ask all ALP members to publically state their position on this. It appears that having a Health Minister who is a woman, a recent mother, and a lawyer understanding consumers’ rights, as a health minister is not proving to be an advantage for women. Removing women’s rights to the point where we are back providing care in dark alleys or in back rooms is ridiculous in 2009.”

I was disappointed with the tactics used in this press release to further the cause of saving private midwifery. In particular I was unimpressed with how the release claims that birth is inherently dangerous unless a care-provider is present and the marginalisation of freebirthers within Homebirth Australia (they may be freebirthers but they're homebirthers too!). A dear friend of mine, a fellow birth activist and homebirther, Jessica Pritchard wrote a response to this press release which outlines my concerns more clearly and succinctly than I could. She has given me permission to share her response here:

"It is disturbing to witness the slander of birth that is in the media at the moment. I really believe to label the "freebirth or purebirth movement" as dangerous is irresponsible and just another way of disempowering and dividing an already small community.

While I understand the sentiment behind the claims - unassisted birth should not be the only choice beside hospital birth - this is very different to actually naming the freebirth movement. There are many women who are choosing to birth on their own, or with non-medical assistance for very different reasons - the least of which is money or political. These women will continue to birth this way whether or not these recommendations become law. For you to say that women and babies will die as a result just solidifies the uninformed notion that birth is innately dangerous. It saddens me that as a homebirth advocate you would have so little regard for the process of birth and of women.

If you don't trust birth (or the women who birth) you have no business being it that space.

Divide and conquer - its what 'they' want. Please don't continue to alienate some of the very few allies you have with propaganda and slander. By doing that you are guilty of what Obstetricians do to you - label and shame.

UNITED WE STAND - a homebirth is a homebirth no matter who you have there."

We understand that women being left with a "choice" between homebirthing unassisted or hospital birth could lead to women "choosing" freebirth who aren't really prepared or ready for the responsibility that brings and this could lead to dangerous outcomes. But, as Jess said in her letter, alienating some of their allies does not serve the greater good, it divides an already small community of women (for more on that see my early post "Divide and Concquer Pitting Homebirthers Against Freebirthers")

Save Homebirth Rally September 7

Readers are probably aware of the crimes against women, babies and birth the Australian government is in the process of committing (see Maternity Services Review blog posts). Midwives Victoria have succinctly outlined the measures the government has taken which will effectively make homebirth with a midwife illegal on their blog:

"Clauses from the draft legislation Health Practitioner Regulation Law 2009 below have been identified by Justine as being very problematic to homebirth practice.

69 Eligibility for general registration

(1) An individual is eligible for general registration in a health profession
if:
(a) the individual is qualified for registration in the health profession,
and
(b) the individual has successfully completed:
(i) any period of supervised practice in the health profession required by the National Board established for the health profession, or
(ii) any examination or assessment required by the Board to assess the individual’s ability to competently and safely practise the profession, and
(c) the individual is a suitable person to be registered in the profession, and
(d) there is, or will be, in force in relation to the individual appropriate professional indemnity insurance arrangements, including a policy held, or arrangements made, by the
individual’s employer that will cover the individual

101 Conditions of registration

(1) If a National Board decides to register a person in the health profession for which the Board is established, the registration is subject to the following conditions:
(a) for a registered health practitioner other than a health practitioner who holds non-practising registration:
(i) that the registered health practitioner must complete the continuing professional development program required by the National Board, and
(ii) that the registered health practitioner must not practise the health profession unless professional indemnity insurance arrangements are in force in relation to the practitioner’s
practice of the profession,
(b) for a registered health practitioner who holds non-practising registration, that the person must not practise the health Profession,

Note. A failure by a registered health practitioner to comply with a condition of
the practitioner’s registration does not constitute an offence but may constitute behaviour for which disciplinary action may be taken." (Read full blog post here).

One birth activist; Justine Cairnes has organised for anyone who is outraged with these actions to gather in Canberra on September 7 to protest.

The following is from Justine's Save Homebirth website:

Homebirth Rights Rally - Canberra September 7 2009

HOME - EVERY WOMAN’S BIRTH RIGHT – RALLY FOR HOMEBIRTH – MONDAY SEPTEMBER 7 2009, PARLIAMENT HOUSE CANBERRA

Homebirth Australia is hosting a MAJOR rally in Canberra (outside Parliament House) on Monday September 7 from 11.30am.

There has been much discussion about the potential outlawing of homebirth and the continued lack of equity for women choosing homebirth.

We need this to be BIG. When I met with the federal department of Health they commented on the huge number of submissions (900 of which over half came from homebirth consumers). Sadly I said if you outlaw homebirth I will lead 9000 angry women and babies to Canberra!

Now 9000 may be a tall order but we need thousands.

For all the women and midwives that have contacted and said this issue matters please put it in your diary.

There is lots to organise and we look forward to many providing ideas and support.

The states close to Canberra will be called on to provide as many as possible to attend.

It would be great to have at least a few from every state and territory.

Please forward this meeting far and wide.

Details will soon be on the HBA website.

They ignored our stories and our letters during the review, let's hope we can cause enough of a ruckus that they cannot ignore our voices when we take to the streets. And how utterly depressing that whenever women have a great need like control over their bodies at birth or the right to vote we have to go to such lengths to get powerholders to give a shit.

Hopefully I'll see you all in Canberra in September!

Congratulations Sarah & Steven!

In a shower at quarter past ten last night a baby girl emerged from her mother's body to the soothing sounds of her mama calling "it's alright bubby girl" (for she instinctively knew her child's sex without having found out from scans).

Welcome earthside Eloise Jane!

Congratulations Sarah & Steven! And what a surprise Iris will get in the morning when she wakes to discover she is a big sister!

Thank-you, beautiful family, for your friendship each day and especially for the wonderful blessing of being invited to be a part of such a special time in your lives. It was humbling to serve you last night, and before xoxo

Blog Awarded

Ilithyia Inspired has been given the following award by the ever inspiring Michelle of The Living Temple.

Michelle says:

It is an award for bloggers who distinguish themselves for showing cultural values, ethics, great and fun writing skills, as well as individual values, through their creative writing...Here are the award rules: To accept and show the distinct image. Show the link to the blog from which you were given the award. Choose 15 blogs to give the award to.

Thank-you Michelle, your appreciation of my blog and your respect for my values and writing is both humbling and encouraging.

The 15 blogs I would like to pass this award on to are (in no particular order)

1. Water & Spirit. The blog of a doula in Fiji.
2. Rachael Austin. The blog of an Australian Midwife working in a rural area.
3. Majikfaerie. The blog of a lay midwife who is a citizen of the world, living a rainbow life.
4. The Living Temple. I return the award to Michelle, the freebirthing, raw foodie, BirthKeeper being the change we want to see in the world.
5. Homebirth: a midwife mutiny. The blog of Adelaide's with-woman, packed with valuable birth information, her breech articles are a must read!
   
6. Gloria Lemay. The blog of Canadian birth attendant Gloria Lemay.
7. Jodi Cleghorn. An Australian writer who shares her fiction along with her nonfiction and co-editor of the Sex After Childbirth e-book.
8. One of Those Women. A great breastfeeding focused blog that always makes me feel a little less alone in my lactivism.
9. Empowering Birth Blog. The blog of a midwifery student who has discovered that birth can be empowering after homebirthing after caesarean.
10. Stand and Deliver. Dr Rixa Freeze's blog, the woman who wrote a PhD about unassisted childbirth in North America.
11. Letters from Laura. The blog of Laura Shanley, author of "Unassisted Childbirth" and creator of the Born Free website.
12. Homebirth For Dads. The blog of a Dad preparing, with his partner, for the homebirth of his child.
13. Hoyden About Town. A great Australian feminist blog with multiple contributors. Check out the work of Lauredhel in particular!
    
14. The Well-Rounded Mama. A really insightful blog that takes a look at pregnancy, birth and plus size women.
15. Kate Harding's Shapely Prose. A terrific resource for anyone interested in fat acceptance and the reality that you can be healthy at any size.
    

Enjoy checking out those 15 engaging blogs!

Birth Week Round Up

I spent May 27-31 staying in Kallista, Victoria for Birth Week. Birth Week is a five day long festival in which women come together for seminars, workshops, film screenings, artwork, and information about pregnancy and birth. It's a fabulous opportunity for birth workers and anyone with a love of birth to network with like minded women and men.

Of the 16 sessions offered over the course of the week I attended 6. All sessions were held in Kallista Mechanics Hall:

The Birth Week organisers had decorated the inside of the hall with lots of beautiful pregnancy and birth inspired artwork including photographs, sculptures, paintings and installations:

This plaster belly cast is painted in placental blood

I have learned that this painting and the sculpture below are the work of Gabby Willmott. You can see more of her work at The Breastfeeding Centre in Dandenong.

There was also a display table with items for purchase, free brochures, pamphlets and business cards from a variety of different people; yoga instructors, doulas, midwives, toy makers etc.

The first session I attended was run by three local midwives who work together in private practice. Eastside Midwives; Andrea Bilcliff, Helen Barrington and Karen Heyword spoke about "Birth Choices". To illustrate the importance of taking time to make informed birth choices the midwives told the hypothetical tale of a fictional mother-to-be they named "Mavis".

Mavis found out she was pregnant after missing a period, taking a home pregnancy test and then going to her GP for confirmation. Her GP then asked her where she would have they baby; "in a public or private hospital?". She had multiple ultrasound scans throughout pregnancy despite her health and her low risk categorisation because they were recommended by her care provider, she was told they were completely safe for her and the baby. When the time came to birth she relied on the information her care provider gave her, and every step of the way the risks of interventions were not mentioned and Mavis was told that most patients her care provider looked after did what he suggested.

The birth of her first child was a typical cascade of interventions story that began with a medical induction and ended with a caesarean. At the end of it she and her partner were grateful that they she had birthed in hospital with a surgeon for a care provider.

The Eastside midwives then spoke briefly about how the interventions Mavis endured during birth could have been avoided had she had a different care provider from the beginning. To demonstrate this they went on to tell the hypothetical tale of Mavis's vaginal homebirth after caesarean.

The main point of the session was the relevance of choices made early in the birth journey to the outcomes and experience of birth months later. This opened up a discussion about choosing homebirth, the services independent midwives provide and the dangers of some medical procedures (of which induction was the focus).

The Eastside Midwives also spoke briefly about the Maternity Services Review and the Budget announcement that midwives will be receiving medicare numbers and what these things meant for women and for homebirth.

While I enjoyed their talk and really enjoyed catching up with the midwives themselves, I wish there had have been more discussion about how our society, our medical care providers and our government control and limit birth choices. I feel there was a little too much focus on how the woman makes her own bed and lies in it when the sad fact is that she doesn't have a say in what linen, mattress or bed frame she has to work with. There was great discussion about; "this is how the system is" with a very lite discussion of "how to change the system" and no discussion of "why the system is the way it is". Of course it's clear that the midwives target audience was pregnant mothers for whom these topics are very new, and for them I'm sure it would have been a really useful and informative session.

Morning tea was had between this session and second session "Birth Work" which was facilitated by another midwife; Fiona Hallinan.

Fiona Hallinan's session was entitled "Birth Work" and it was fabulously educational for all the mothers and birth workers present. Fiona spoke about the importance of learning from traditional midwives and cultures where the practices of traditional midwives continue to prosper. In relation to this she said of western midwifery training that it is "watered down medicine" and therefore western midwives really need to go in search of further knowledge from traditional midwives.

Fiona herself has learned from Mexican midwives and during her session taught everyone in the room a technique she learned from them called "rebozo". Rebozo is a method of relaxing the mother during pregnancy and birth and moving the baby in utero using a shawl. Fiona demonstrated how to use rebozo to relax a mother and ease any discomfort she has in pregnancy or birth when you have only one birth servant:

And then she enlisted the help of another midwife to demonstrate how to do it with the aid of someone else:

She mentioned that if the baby was lying in a posterior position she would not recommend using rebozo with the mother lying on her back. Instead she said it is good for the mother of a posterior bub to get on her hands and knees and for her birth servants to use rebozo by wrapping the shall around her backside and rocking her from side to side:

Fiona shared some stories about the wonderful help rebozo had been to the women she had served as well as some general insights about birth work including; "if birth is like taking drive it doesn't matter who is in the car with the mother so long as she is always in the drivers seat".

She also spoke at length about a woman's pelvis, busting common myths about the pelvis and tips on how to work with your pelvis during birth. She said that indeed some women do have small gaps through which their babies need to come through but that this didn't mean they were unable to birth. She spoke about the importance of knowing your equipment/familiarising yourself with your body before birth. For example, she said a woman with a small opening could use her time during pregnancy to learn about movements to help her open up as much as possible and facilitate her baby's descent into the vagina.

While I found Fiona's talk to be incredibly educational and by far my favourite workshop for the week, there were parts of it where I wondered "does this come from trust in birth? Or fear of it?". For me I'd rather not spend pregnancy learning optimal positions to birth in and instead see what movements come naturally to me when the time comes. I trust that my instincts will guide me to adopt the positions that will best facilitate birth without me needing to understand them intellectually beforehand.

Having said that, I do understand that I am a small minority and have the advantage of birthing in a space where I am free to move as I see fit. For most Australian women they are birthing in an institution where their movements are restricted, often so restricted that they are kept on their backs in bed. For these women it is important to hear the teachings of women like Fiona Hallinan, but I wonder how many of them would attend such a seminar or even know about it.

In any case Fiona Hallinan strikes me as a gifted and valuable birth servant to Melbourne women and I look forward to learning more from her in the future and taking one or more of her workshops.

I did not attend any of the sessions on day two as I needed to head back home to attend a 36 week meet with the woman whom I'm currently serving and the rest of her support team.

On day three I had the pleasure of meeting Dr Sarah J. Buckley. I attended the afternoon session "Gentle Birth and Gentle Mothering" in which Sarah covered a range of topics including pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding and cosleeping (to name a few). It was basically her book Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering squeezed into a three hour discussion.

What I enjoyed in particular about Sarah's talk was what she had to say about evolution. She spoke about the fact that human beings have evolved in such a way that it is natural, normal and necessary for them to parent in certain ways, which is often referred to as "attachment parenting" in today's western society. Our species owes its survival to women, the pregnancy and birth processes, breastfeeding, cosleeping and babywearing.

After the session she sold and signed copies of her second edition of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering and chatted to the women in attendance.

On day four Rhea Dempsey gave two talks. Rhea has been a birth attendant for over 30 years who now runs a birth attendant training course and provides cousenlling to families before and after birth, as well as couples counselling. In the morning Rhea spoke about "Ego and Birthing".

During the "Ego and Birthing" session Rhea spoke about attachment psychology and how our experiences as children and how we are parented shape how we relate to others later in life. She then linked this to women's birth choices. She focused on "anxious attachment", (brought about by inconsistent responses to the persons needs) "avoidance attachment" (brought about by the consistent refusual to respond to the persons needs) and "secure attachment" (brought about by consistent meeting of the persons needs).

Rhea suggested that an individuals' attachment psychology shaped her expectations regarding birth care providers and the birth process and in particular their tendency to trust. She spoke about the spectrum of trust in birth and how at one end there are women who have little trust in the natural process of birth and a lot of trust in birth interventions, and at the other end are the woman who have a lot of trust in the birthing process and little trust in care providers and interventions.

Her afternoon talk was about "Sex and Parenting". To start with she got the room to shout out motivations for having sex and pointed out that there are a lot of different reasons someone might want sex. The first half of this seminar was very similar to the morning session, going over attachment psychology, but with a focus on how this plays out in adult couple relationships as opposed to birth choices. She then spoke about biological drive and sex and how men and women are different.

In the middle of her session she got everyone to get up and dance around to Flight of The Concords "Business Time" and then spoke briefly about how the lyrics to the song give us a light hearted look into how two people's understanding of what is happening regarding sex can be completely different.

Sadly I missed the second half of her talk which I am sure was the really useful and interesting stuff to do with parenting and sex because my toddler really had had enough of being in the room so I took her for a play outside. My friend who attended the whole talk told me afterwards that Rhea had said that for six months after birth it is normal for a woman not to feel like sex but she claimed that it was a myth that breastfeeding hormones decrease a woman's libido for longer than six months, which shocked me. She also said, according to my friend, that the longer a woman goes without sex the less she wants it or feels she need it. It's hard to comment on any of this as I was not present and I daresay what Rhea actually said was far more complex than this (as was her ego and birthing talk which I have not done justice in this reflection).

On the last day of Birth Week I attended the morning discussion about lotus birth. This session was ideal for pregnant women considering lotus birth, with lots of information about the benefits of lotus birth, how to care for the placenta, ideas for what to do with the placenta after birth, photos of lotus births and placenta bags for parents to look at.

A number of people present shared their lotus birth stories, including my partner and I. I was able to share some information about creating placenta artwork. There was discussion about the practical elements of lotus birth such as; keeping visitors at bay, preventing the baby from being passed around to all and sundry, and encouraging mothers to take it easy and spend their first week in bed snuggled up with her baby. As the session was concluding one of the two facilitators mentioned that for her family lotus birth was the natural conclusion to an intervention free birth experience & a process of honouring the final stages of birth without rushing.

Thus concludes my report on the six sessions I was able to attend during Birth Week. I thoroughly enjoyed the festival and connecting with so many birth-loving women and men. Kallista is a beautiful place, surrounded by tall trees, which makes Birth Week all the more enjoyable. If you do get a chance to attend one of the future Birth Weeks I strongly recommend you do (you'll most likely see me there, for one!).

For those who were unable to attend you can still become a member of the Birth Week association and the benefit of this is you receive their Birth Stories journal. The journal features really gorgeous front cover artwork and cover to cover birth stories written by the birthing women themselves. Find out more here.

My daughter and I with another birth servant I studied with.