Australian Private Midwives Association: Towards Normal Birth in NSW

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Towards Normal Birth in NSW

Towards Normal Birth in NSW, a policy directive, with a requirement for mandatory compliance, was released earlier this year.
"This policy provides direction to NSW maternity services regarding actions to increase the vaginal birth rate in NSW and decrease the caesarean section operation rate; to develop, implement and evaluate strategies to support women and to ensure that midwives and doctors have the knowledge and skills necessary to implement this policy."

Carolyn Hastie has listed her 21 strategies to keep birth normal at her thinkbirth blog.

A NZ midwife, Sarah Stewart, has provided the link to the RCM list of ten top tips.

Midwives around the world have in recent years been promoting normal birth as a definitional duty of care, rather than a default position.

The policy directive Towards Normal Birth in NSW contains many parallels with the global Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), in the protection, promotion and support of breastfeeding. It is a simple step from BFHI to the protection, promotion and support of the normal physiological processes in the whole birthing continuum, rather than waiting until the baby has been born and needs food. The '10 steps to providing woman centred labour and birth care' (p8) parallels the BFHI '10 Steps'.

The NSW Health Department has taken a brave step in the right direction with this document. Time will tell whether 'mandatory' means just that, or something else. The implementation check list (Attachment 1) states that "All Area Health Services must achieve the measures by 2015."

We would love to hear from any readers in NSW. How's it going?

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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.