Australian Private Midwives Association: Face of Birth petition

Friday, April 20, 2012

Face of Birth petition

From the Face of Birth website

Online petition supports women's choice in childbirth!

09-Apr-2012

Every woman has the right to decide where, how and with whom she gives birth, but not all women have the same access to funding. If you would like to help change that in Australia, then please sign the petition and spread the word. It only takes a minute!

Readers of this blog will probably know about Face of Birth, and are likely to have signed the petition. IF you haven't, please take a moment CLICK HERE and sign this petition. The number of signatures today is approaching the 500 mark. The Petition site gives people the opportunity to write a comment as to why they signed, which provides an interesting and thought-provoking sub-text to the petition. Here are a few:

Dr Kirsten Small from Nambour Qld:

Women should not be put in a position where they have to chose between birth at home without a skilled care provider, or the limited menu of options on offer in our hospital.

Denise Hynd, and Australian midwife who has moved to New Zealand:

I will come and practice midwifery when this petition is successful!!

Sally-Anne Brown from Vic

Bring Birth Back Home on Country

Jodi Johnson from Wights Mountain

Because this country is sooo backward in supporting normal birth - through supporting midwifery models.

Michelle Fulcher of Balgownie

Australia's Maternity System is BROKEN and heading towards a more American model will only make it worse and increase the maternity mortality rates!! Look at New Zealand and be BRAVE enough to give Australian women & babies the same protected rights!!! We'll no longer have doctor shortages and midwives will come flocking back!

Bev Walker of Venus Bay Vic

I gave up on the women in the ALP on this issue. Senator Siewert became our hero and one of the few who got it. My first solution would be to get rid of the advisers to the Health Minister and put anyone of several home birth women and midwives in to their place.

Susan Cudlpp from High Wycombe

I am signing because this is a basic truth. Birthing choices are a human right which is being eroded steadily from the lives of Australian women. Women in this country have less and less choice, the medical monopoly exerts more and more power and midwives are unsupported and unprotected.

Marg Phelan from Casuarina NT

Women have the right to birth where they choose and with whom they want. They need to be supported in their choice with Midwives who are fully supported by the Dept of health with Medicare and Insurance.

Lisa O'Connell from Wentworthville

Because I wanted a homebirth more than anything, but just couldn't afford it on our own!

The following Comment is from the writer of this post, Joy Johnston

‘Choice’ is a slippery entity that easily moves out of reach when in reality the woman’s access to a particular model of care, or a place in a birth centre or even birth at home is easily overruled by other factors – availability, wealth, service provision and the mother’s or baby’s health status. In fact, the only real choice a woman has in birth is if she accepts and works in harmony with her body’s natural processes, and finds professional support that will not interfere without a valid reason.

‘Choice’ that is limited by wealth and private health insurance is not choice at all. A woman who chooses maternity care in a private hospital because she has so called ‘health’ insurance that covers this option may be surprised when she discovers that this choice increases her chances of medical and surgical interventions, and decreases her chances of normal birth. Those who want normal birth can be appropriately supported by a known midwife who is skilled in protecting wellness in birthing.

Many of us have been part of the birth reform movement for a long time, in which midwives and consumers have joined together in the ‘choice’ refrain. Now I feel we have been wrong. I think that rather than women's choice we should be demanding the right of the midwife to practise midwifery. If a community has midwives, women can give birth in that community. If a community doesn’t have midwives, or the midwives in the community are shackled to a system that doesn’t even respect the midwife, women can talk about rights and it means nothing.

A woman really only has one choice: Plan A - DIY (do it yourself), or ask someone else to take over.

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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.