Australian Private Midwives Association: membership in APMA

Friday, February 3, 2012

membership in APMA

The APMA committee are checking our membership database, and sending a reminder message to those whose membership has lapsed due to unpaid subscription fees.

This is a good opportunity to invite other midwives who are practising privately in Australia to consider taking out membership, and joining other colleagues in our effort to improve maternity care through access to private midwifery.

For more information about APMA, please click here, and fill out the membership inquiry message.

Of course – should you feel able or willing to make a donation to APMA to assist us further to meet the goals of APMA it would be greatly appreciated.

The fee for renewal of membership is $50.00 annually. Please make payment by direct deposit/electronic transfer into the APMA account, and include your name in the message.

The APMA bank account is: BSB: 067-105 Account #: 10344192

If you are no longer practising as an independent midwife, and would like to continue as a ‘supporter’ of APMA, please let me know [joy@aitex.com.au], and that will be recorded on our database.

The APMA committee are also in the process of preparing a Statement of Purpose. Some of the points noted at a recent brainstorming session are:

To represent midwives who practise privately – across the full scope of practice, not just Medicare-eligible midwives, not just homebirth midwives

To support and care for members in a non-judgmental way, with flexibility to respond to different people and situations

To respond to issues related to private practice midwives

To present the needs of private practice midwives to the regulatory authority – eg to ensure that midwives’ peers are used as experts in investigations and hearings

To lobby in the political sphere, in response to current issues

To share information with members and the wider community

Members and other readers are welcome to contribute your ideas and suggestions to the development of a Statement of Purpose.

Thankyou.
Joy Johnston
(Vice President, and blogger)

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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.