Australian Private Midwives Association: MEDIA RELEASE

Sunday, November 8, 2009

MEDIA RELEASE

MEDIA RELEASE
Australian Private Midwives Association
Contact: National President Liz Wilkes 0423 580585
Medical veto impacts women’s access to care: Women Rally.
The Federal government may stall on the blocks of its first major initiative in health as the reform of maternity services hits stumbling blocks and criticism. Women will rally around Australia tomorrow to ensure choices are not lost in the wash up. Liz Wilkes, National President of the Australian Private Midwives Association, will join women and midwives outside Kevin Rudd’s electorate office in Brisbane. Women are seeking assurances that new legislation around private midwives registration and practice will not reduce options for care. “Midwives are educated and regulated to provide care for pregnancy, labour and birth on their own responsibility under the International Confederation of Midwives definition of a
midwife,” Ms Wilkes stated “Suddenly we are told that doctors control the ship and that doctors will be able to decide who can do what.”

Legislation due before the Senate was amended on Thursday by the Government to require midwives to work at all times in formal collaborative arrangements with doctors as a condition of insurance. Doctors will be able to veto these arrangements effectively giving the medical profession the ability to control which midwives can be insured and register. “The reform of maternity services is the first test of the Governments health reform agenda. It looks like the medical lobby may stall these reforms before they even get started.” Ms Wilkes said today “Placing one profession at the complete mercy of another for registration makes a mockery of professional regulation in this country.” Women at the centre of the scuffle are concerned that the amendment may erode rather than expand choices as doctors make decisions about what types of care to support. Many choices such as homebirth, vaginal birth after caesarean and care in rural areas may be lost if doctors do not form the formal agreements with midwives. “For the midwives who are currently self-employed it is no longer a matter of referring a woman who needs care to the appropriate person. Formal agreements with doctors will determine which of these educated, experienced and skilled midwives can actually register.” Ms Wilkes added “Regulators should control midwifery professional standards, not how a doctor feels about a particular midwife. This takes midwifery back 50 years.”

Women are worried about the choices in birth and are calling on the Prime Minister to make sure that in implementing this first serious reform in health, options for choice are not lost. Women rally at 10.30am November 9 at electorate offices of Kevin Rudd Brisbane, Julia Gillard Melbourne, Tanya Plibersek Sydney and Stephen Smith Perth.

Contacts: Liz Wilkes 0423 580585 (Brisbane and national)
Marie Health 0407266004 (Sydney)
Sally Westbury 0422 894 496 (Perth)
Clare Lane 0416 130291 (Melbourne)

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WHO ARE WE?

The Australian Private Midwives Association represents midwives in private practice. The association is focused on the safety of women, the ability of women to access quality midwifery care across Australia and the partnerships between women and midwives. APMA supports women’s choice in maternity options within a framework of quality and safety and believes in women being able to access midwives in all settings. APMA unites all midwives seeking to provide continuity of care for women.

APMA strives to provide midwives in private practice with information relevant to their practice and advocacy in the political process.

Enquiries:
Joy Johnston joy@aitex.com.au
Marie Heath NSW and National 0407 266004
Clare Lane (Vic) 0416 130219

APMA POSITION STATEMENT on PLANNED HOME BIRTHS WITH A MIDWIFE

1. We support home birth with a midwife in attendance for women who have uncomplicated labours. 2. We support and adopt the International Confederation of Midwives’ (ICM) Definition of the Midwife (2011), which is foundational to all midwifery practice, including homebirth. 3. We support the right of every woman to access a midwife as the primary maternity caregiver who works in partnership with the woman throughout the episode of care, who is able to be the responsible professional in attendance at the birth either at home or hospital, and who is able to make appropriate referral and transfer of care when required. 4. We support the right of a midwife to practise privately in a fee-for-service or funded relationship with the client, or to take up employment. 5. We support only those regulatory restrictions that are able to pass the ‘public interest’ test: “How does this promote health and wellbeing in the mother and baby?” 6. We support an expectation of equity, including equal pay for equal work throughout a midwife’s scope of practice. Midwives who provide primary maternity care are entitled to the same public funding, the same opportunity to charge a fee-for-service, the same access to hospital referral, and publicly supported indemnity insurance, as medical practitioners providing the same maternity services. 7. We support processes by which midwives are able to gain experience and mentoring in order to commence and demonstrate competence in homebirth practice. 8. We support seamless and reliable processes by which midwives are able to make hospital bookings for women planning homebirth, and arrange transfer to the hospital in a timely way when needed.