A Glimmer Of Hope? Or Dust In My Eye?

After my update about the homebirth situation two of our independent midwives have posted updates of their own.

From Lisa Barrett:

"If at all possible most midwives will jump through the hoops to continue on the register, rendering it almost impossible, even with a right of refusal, for her to support the women who don't want to collaborate with the hospital, or put in place a plan for transfer that includes more than calling an ambulance and ringing the hospital in advance of arriving." (Read in full here)

Joy Johnston From Private Midwifery Services:

"We know that we will be required to have professional indemnity insurance that covers everything we do professionally, excluding homebirth.
What we don't know yet includes: Who will provide the indemnity insurance? What that insurance will cost? What 'excluding homebirth' means, precisely. When does homebirth begin and end, for the purposes of this insurance? What will we be required to do to access the exclusion for homebirth?...

As far as I know, insurance brokers who are looking into providing this special insurance product for midwives' private practices have not yet put any offers on the table publicly. The Australian College of Midwives has informed members that it has a product which will be available for a fee in addition to membership fees. The Australian Nursing Federation (Victorian Branch) has informed members that it is also negotiating a product suitable for members who are independent midwives." (Read in full here)

The other day a friend of mine posted the following quote on his Facebook wall and it gave me a little glimmer of hope:

"Every major movement for social change in our history was hopeless. Hopeless from the beginning, hopeless through the middle, hopeless up to the very end. But then, like a bolt out of a blue sky, a breakthrough. So our job is not to give up, give in or go away. Take action, speak clearly as you can, & trust the lesson of history: Truthful, nonviolent movements are destined to win." John Dear on Howard Zinn"

I know that homebirth will continue in Australia after July 1. If I really want to see a plus side in this entire ordeal I suppose I could say "look at all the publicity homebirth has received in the last year!" Getting the word out there that homebirth is an option has always been a bit of a struggle in medico-addicted-Australia, but in the last year average Australians have been exposed to the idea through the mainstream media (albeit not a great deal, but more than before these reforms began). Parties involved in regulating maternity services, politicians, journalists etc have been forced to see the diversity of homebirthing families. And I'm optimistic that the forthcoming Face of Birth documentary about homebirth in Australia will do us all a great service.

With Lisa and Joy I sit and wait to see what the next chapter has in store for us all...