Home Made Home Birth Advocacy Items

In the lead up to the mother of all rallies in Canberra, some of my local homebirth friends have been getting together to help make some banners and t-shirts for the protest. When the rally has been and gone I will miss these creative days, they were a lot of fun. Our crew consisted of:

• One Mum who had a fairly great hospital birth a couple of years ago but can't wait to homebirth number two with a midwife.
• Another Mum who had a fairly good hospital birth a couple of years ago and recently homebirthed her second child. She also hired a midwife but ended up accidentally freebirthing.
• A Mum who homebirthed four of her five children, with the support of a midwife (her first, hospital, birth was not good).
• A Mother of one little freebirthed child, who plans to freebirth all her children.
• A Dad of one little freebirthed child, who can't wait to do it all again and again and again and again :)
• And of course, all our children!

First we all helped make the banner brainchild of the mum looking forward to giving birth at home in the future:

Then we made some t-shirts featuring iron-on slogans we created on the computer:

As you can see I created a shirt to reclaim the media's use of the phrase "backyard birth" to refer to homebirth without a midwife. As a freebirther I grow weary of the assumption that birthing without a care provider is dangerous and I am offended at the implication that it is in the same category as illegal/unsafe abortion.

My daughter and I also purchased some homebirth advocating clothing before our t-shirt making day:

One very talented Mama created this banner:

Finally we all helped make a banner featuring my appropriation of the dirty dancing quote "nobody puts Baby in a corner":

We've had a very productive couple of weeks and can't wait to see each other on the steps of Parliament come September 7!

"You're Not Qualified!"

In my last post I mentioned my skepticism about Andrew Laming MP's use of the phrase "appropriate hospital support" in his speech about homebirth. Some of my homebirth advocating friends feel I was too skeptical and that Laming could have meant that hospitals would be a safe place for transfers if required and independent midwives would be treated respectfully and hospital staff would work collaboratively with them when caring for a homebirther who had transferred. I don't believe Australians have any reason to give MPs the benefit of the doubt when it comes to protecting homebirth rights.

In her latest post "Consumers are not stakeholders, it would seem, when birth is discussed" Looking Glass Alice explores what a homebirth program to come out of current negotiations will most likely involve. Outlook not so good...

There were far too many insightful and chilling quotes to pick just a few to post here, so please read the post in full for a glimpse into what homebirth may very well become in Australia if activists get too optimistic too soon.

Homebirth Makes It To Question Time

Here is some footage of one Australian parliamentarian speaking up for homebirth midwifery during question time. While I take issue with some of the things he has to say I am grateful that this issue is getting the attention it deserves:

Some of the things I take issue with include;

• Comparing hospital and homebirth of past centuries with this one is a little silly. There is no need to. If he had done some better research he could talk about the dangers of hospital birth right here and right now, but obviously that would be unpopular.
• "Appropriate hospital support" concerns me. Homebirth programs run by hospitals tend to be very restrictive in terms of whom they accept into the program and limit women's choice regarding who they hire as a midwife and their power to determine whether or not to transfer to hospital during birth and/or opt out of regular medical testing during pregnancy. I believe hospital run homebirth schemes are a big step backwards for women's birthing rights and maternal-child health and safety because what is deemed "high risk" is excessive and will lead to midwives losing the skills to attend; VBACs, multiples, breech, overweight mothers, older mothers, mothers of four/five or more children etc.
• You can go back a lot further than 5 centuries to see the history of midwifery!
  
• Mums who are contemplating homebirth are well and truly aware of the legislative changes, dude.

I did enjoy his acknowledgement of the strange bedfellows we make in politics; conservatives speaking up for homebirth! Let's hope it makes a difference!

*Note for international readers. In Australia the conservative party in opposition is called The Liberals and/or The Coalition (as they are a coaltion of The Liberal Party and The National Party, The Nationals were once upon a time known as the representatives for rural Australians). The party in power at the moment is The Labour Party, which has working class roots. For clearer and more indepth information about the Australian Political system see:

http://australianpolitics.com/parties/

http://australianpolitics.com/democracy/overview/

Senate Inquiry Midwifery Recommendations

The recommendations to come from The Senate Inquiry held last month have been published. You can read the full document in PDF here. The most relevant recommendation to homebirthers can be found on pages 18-19:

"1.77 The Committee notes that there is a separate exposure draft Bill for the National registration and Accreditation Scheme for Health Professionals which has been prepared for all jurisdictions via a COAG agreement. It is the outcome of this legislation that may result in homebirths being outside the scope of practice of registered midwives due to the requirement for indemnity insurance as a condition of registration. The Committee acknowledges the concerns expressed by stakeholders that an unintended consequence of this may be to drive homebirths underground unless an exemption is granted or an insurance product found.

1.78 The Committee acknowledges that the minister is currently working with the States and Territories on potential options to prevent this from happening. This will include investigating indemnity options for homebirths that could be progressed without making the insurance unaffordable.

Recommendation 1
1.79 The committee recommends that the Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009, the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Bill 2009 and the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Run-off Cover Support Payment) Bill 2009 be passed. " (emphasis original)

Aside from obviously being unhappy with the recommendation I am unimpressed with the Senate's claim that outlawing homebirth midwifery was "unintentional" in drafting this legislation. Political figures cannot pay attention to one lobby group (in this case the rich and powerful obstetric lobby group) while ignoring the thousands of letters from independent midwives and hombirth families and then pretend to be surprised that the homebirthers have been left out in the cold.

Further to this, it concerns me greatly that The Senate are satisfied that The Health Minister is working with state and territory governments to fix this so-called oversight. I don't know of any state or territory politicians who have been to a homebirth. But I do know that state run homebirth programs are ridiculously restrictive and leave most families with the hospital or freebirth ultimatum. Almost all variations of normal pregnancy and birth fall under the "high risk" category in these programs.

Homebirth midwife, Lisa Barrett beautifully summarised one of the biggest problems with all the political discussion about homebirth regulation on her blog:

"The main problem with the whole document is that it is focused on insurance for midwives (although the Greens to recommend a waiver until this is sorted out). It focuses on midwifery as an entity to be controlled or decided upon. The woman's right to chose was not the focus for any one of these senators. I think politicians have totally forgotten that they are supposed to be representing the public and not the AMA or RANZCOG."

There has been a rash of articles in national and local newspapers about homebirth, myself included has spoken to a journalist to raise awareness in my community. The following quote was my favourite in all the articles that have been published in the past week. It was said by Liz Wilkes, the president of the Australian Private Midwives Association, in an article in the The Sydney Morning Herald:

''It looks like the voices of more than 2000 women speaking out on fundamental women's rights has been ignored and given the sheer magnitude of the evidence put forward and the results the committee has come up with, it looks like we are getting to the end of the line when it comes to options.''"

The need to keep our voices loud and strong remains. See you in Canberra next month!

The Breastfeeding Doll

A Spanish company has released a toy doll which breastfeeds. As you can imagine this has caused quite a stir. The doll has been accused of sexualising young girls, being obscene and inappropriate. In my opinion the doll is weird, not because it is designed to breastfeed, but because of the strange way in which the doll feeds.

The doll comes with a shirt which the child puts on in place of breasts. Where breasts would be the shirt has flowers. When the doll cries the child puts the dolls mouth to the flowers and the doll moves its mouth and makes a suckling sound in response. When finished "feeding" the doll burbs.

The great thing about this doll is that it promotes breastfeeding and it is one of the only dolls on the market that doesn't come with a toy bottle. It is a step in the right direction. But the flower nipple shirt is unnecessary and a little odd.

Any breastfeeding family can tell you that their children breastfeed toys. Boys and girls alike mimic behaviour, it's how they learn, and those who have seen breastfeeding happily breastfeed their dolls, teddies, trucks and just about anything they can get their hands on. This important role playing is one of the earliest stages of learning how to breastfeed.

Dolls that come with toy bottle feeding equipment undermine a girl's confidence in her ability to breastfeed before she is even aware that it is an issue. Through promoting bottle feeding this way, toy companies undermine breastfeeding attempts and lactivism. Toy bottles are just one example of propaganda used against the very young, normalising artificial feeding and further stigmatising breastfeeding.

This breastfeeding doll is one company's alternative to the millions of bottle fed dolls on the market. My concern is that the shirt that comes with the doll could give young girls the impression that putting on something extra (for example nipple shields or breastfeeding covers etc.) when breastfeeding is normal, when in fact all they need are themselves. This is one of the most empowering aspects of breastfeeding for women; all they need to feed they already have right there on their chests!

I also worry what messages little girls might receive from the shirt with regard to the flowers instead of nipples. I believe this could promote the idea that women's normal bodies are shameful and/or obscene and therefore should be made pretty by the addition of flowers. What remains is the misogynistic attitude that breasts and nipples should only be seen in pornography.

A suckling doll who doesn't come with a bottle is gold. Let little girls take care of the rest.

ETA: Today I discovered Heather Cushman-Dowdee has published a comic about this very issue on her blog Mama is.. She sums up my thoughts beautifully. I don't think I'm allowed to republish the comic here, so head over there and check it out:

http://www.mama-is.com/throw-the-bottle-away/

Australian Breastfeeding Strategy

For anyone who has ideas for how to better support and promote breastfeeding in Australia please take a look at this and answer the questions asked at the end. Even if you haven't breastfed before but have ideas and opinions please share them.

National Breastfeeding Strategy - Allen Consulting Group

"The purpose of this project is to develop a National Breastfeeding Strategy for consideration by the AHMC. The new five-year (2010-2015) Strategy will provide a framework for priorities and action for all Australian governments to guide the promotion, support and monitoring of breastfeeding in the community."

Homebirth Rally Made The News

This is the Channel 7 news report on the homebirth rally in Melbourne that aired on Tuesday night:

Melbournian Homebirth Activists Unite

In Melbourne today over 200 women, men and children gathered on the steps of Nicola Roxon's (the federal minister for health) office to protest legislation that stands to outlaw homebirth midwifery.

A couple of midwives (as well as a male midwife) spoke about the importance of homebirth, birth choice and safety. Two mothers shared their personal birth stories, one had planned a homebirth for her first child that resulted in a hospital transfer for a caesarean. She began her story by stating "I am the what if something goes wrong at a homebirth story". She went on to share that her second child was born peacefully at home after a completely uncomplicated labour, supported by a midwife. Members of the crowd shouted out at the end of her story, saying that they had the same story.

Another mother shared that the first couple of her seven children were born in hospital and the rest at home. She stated that she knew so totally that homebirth was right for her family that in one case she was willing to "have an oops in the car" on the way to hospital rather than actually attempt to make it there in time.

A father stepped up, toddler in his arms and announced that just two days ago his wife birthed their son at home. He shared his joy at being part of that experience and the support his family received from a midwife in private practice.

Senator Steven Fielding also spoke. Interestingly he spoke about "women's rights" though his party "Family First" have never been interested in women's rights when it comes to abortion or equality for lesbian couples. I confess to getting a kick out of breastfeeding my daughter while (literally) rubbing shoulders with the conservative politician.

After the speeches the crowd learned some of the words to the protest song "Song For Nicola Roxon" and sang together. At the end of the formal part of the rally protesters were invited to leave calling cards with messages for Nicola Roxon, who steered clear of the building and later refused to comment on the rally or the proposed legislation when contacted by the media.

Channel 7 attended the rally and a short segment appeared on the news at 6pm. The Age also published an article about the rally, though sadly the article focused on what Senator Fielding had to say rather than what the midwives and homebirthing women had to say.

When the rally was finished homebirthing families chatted amongst themselves, making new friends and catching up with the old ones. There was an exciting energy in the atmosphere and a fabulous sense of community amongst the crowd.

One thing is certain, momentum is gathering. Homebirth activists are not a small or quiet group. Today was just a primer for the mother of all rallies set to take place in less than a month on the steps of federal parliament. If Melbourne can gather over 200 mothers, fathers and children on short notice for this cause, imagine what a mighty crowd must be headed to Canberra come September!

More on the rally at:

Village Midwife

Midwives in Private Practice

Parliament Starting To Listen To Homebirthers

I am very excited to say that some Australian politicians are listening to hombirth activists and responding to our call to stop the Federal Government's attempt to outlaw homebirth midwifery.

A press release issued yesterday by The Greens party states that The "Greens will move to protect women's right to choose safe homebirth". While I'm grateful that a significant political party is taking up the cause, once again I am left frustrated by the distinctions being made between homebirthers. Sadly it seems that playing the danger card is the only way most people can figure out how to ascribe importance to homebirth as a woman's right.

An article in The Australian states that The Federal government is "is reconsidering its controversial exclusion of home births from a new midwifery indemnity scheme, before a Senate challenge to the draft legislation." The article echoes The Greens press release, focusing on the danger of underground homebirth.

While optimistic, I remain so cautiously. The struggle is far from over. But at least we know that our efforts are starting to make a difference. This new turn of events has helped me shake off the growing hopelessness I was feeling and has re-inspired me for the rally, which is just a month away!

A message for the Australian Health Minister from one homebirth activist