My Birth have uploaded footage to you tube about the fight to save homebirth midwifery in Australia. This footage is from a cabinet meeting held last week with the Prime Minister and the Health Minister where three citizens concerned about the future of midwifery asked the Prime Minister about the reforms.
Something I found frustrating was that the health minister repeatedly mentions the importance of "back-up arrangements" and midwives "working together" with doctors. This shows a lack of insight into the everyday workings of independent midwifery and homebirth. Homebirthers and their midwives already have back-up arrangements and work with hospitals and their staff to ensure safe outcomes. So far the government's intervention through these maternity reforms has indicated that they plan to change this by officially giving doctors within hospitals power over independent midwives and their clients, hence the voters in this clip questioned them about "veto power".
I became quite angry when Roxon urged Michelle McRitchie to "put yourself in the position of the government". Sorry, Nicola, isn't it the government's job to put itself in the position of the constituents and ensure our rights?! I found her to be quite insensitive at that moment, after McRitchie had explained to the health minister just how prohibitive these reforms will be for her personally.
I became quite angry when Roxon urged Michelle McRitchie to "put yourself in the position of the government". Sorry, Nicola, isn't it the government's job to put itself in the position of the constituents and ensure our rights?! I found her to be quite insensitive at that moment, after McRitchie had explained to the health minister just how prohibitive these reforms will be for her personally.
http://mybirth.com.au/
The Minister for Women is going to appear on the Australian Broadcasting Company's program "Q and A" tomorrow night./ Please take the time to write a question on the show's website about the future of homebirth and independent midwifery. Click here:
2 comments:
I´m a portuguese doula, and I just want you to now that my thoughts are with you!I really hope you women, beautiful and powerful, can be able to regain power over your birth! Is your right!! No one should be able to say what you have to do with your body, it's a cruelty! Never give up! The female force united can win everything!Huggs full oh hope!Sofia
This video alarms me, too. Whenever they want to do a "homebirth trial", I want to know why they don't instead do a "hospital birth trial". We had a number of years of homebirth trial here in B.C., Canada when midwifery first regulated. It would have been an ongoing "trial" except that consumers vigorously lobbied for an end date in the legislation. The "trial" allowed the government access to the private records of homebirth families. It required that homebirth midwives file their charts at the local hospital weeks before the due date. It required the midwife to phone the hospital when the birth began in order to have the so-called "backup" ready. All of that goes against the very essence of a homebirth. It also led to transports and anxiety that could have been avoided if midwives has been able to work as they had prior to the "trial".
If there are such a tiny percentage of Australian births happening at home, why are they so resistant to funding that tiny number? I think it's because the doctor's groups know that there will be a big growth in demand if homebirth is funded and they are fighting it for that reason.
It's plain to see that the politicians in Australia have the wrong context about birth. They have the context that they will "manage birth". That's the context that got everyone in trouble in the first place. When childbirth is normal, it is wild, wonderful and unpredictable. These politicians are afraid of that shift in context so nothing said to them will sink in. Only women voting with their feet and keeping their feet planted firmly in their own homes will make a difference. Gloria Lemay, Vancouver, BC Canada
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