Australian Private Midwives Association: Newsletter May 2012

Monday, April 30, 2012

Newsletter May 2012

Keeping members and supporters informed and encouraged!

Midwifery today, more than ever before, relies on midwives who have the ability to think independently, with the courage to act in the interests of mothers and babies in our care. In this brief newsletter I would like to encourage each midwife to remember why we are midwives, and why we have chosen to work with woman in a private midwifery practice arrangement that is planned around the expectations and needs of each woman through her childbearing journey.

Dear midwife, do you remember ‘once a Caesar, always a Caesar’? Do you remember being taught that cutting an episiotomy would protect the integrity of the woman’s pelvic floor? ... when most babies were ‘sucked out on the perineum’ as soon as their little mouths could be poked and prodded with the suction catheter? ... when babies were wisked away from their mothers and later presented as a little face in a bundle of white toweling?

And, do you remember the first time you witnessed a woman give birth unassisted, unmedicated, and with an ecstatic and triumphant cry? Treasure that memory!

APMA continues to represent and support midwives who practise privately. The boundaries of midwifery practice will continue to be challenged, and midwives will need to be strong and encourage one another in our knowledge of midwifery and of our significant role in our communities. Midwives who practise privately in Australia are invited to submit a membership application at our website http://www.privatemidwives.com.au/#!membership

On Leave
APMA President, Marie Heath, is taking leave from the committee from May to July. The committee has asked Joy Johnston from Melbourne to take the Acting President role. Other members of the committee are: Treasurer, Pete Malavisi (WA), Minutes Secretary, Milly Grigg Smith (SA), Public Officer, Sonja McGregor (NSW), and members Abbey Rodda and Clare Lane. Meetings are usually by Skype, and other APMA members are welcome to join in.

Homebirth and AHPRA
Representatives of APMA and Midwives Australia have met with AHPRA to discuss various issues, including the fact that the Homebirth Position Statement (July 2011), listed at the AHPRA website, is not acceptable to the midwifery profession. This document was prepared without consultation with private practice midwives or consumers, for whom it has serious implications. It has been reported that the July 2011 position statement document meets the stated need of the Health Ministers! (One might ask which Health Minister is planning homebirth!) AHPRA confirmed that the NMBA is using the July 2011 home birth position statement, and not the revised ACM Position Statement on Homebirth Services (November 2011) which currently appears at the ACM website.

Statement of Purpose
The committee has adopted this Statement of Purpose:

The Purpose of APMA is to represent and support midwives who practise privately in any setting
In functioning as the national body representing midwives who are in private practice, APMA seeks:
• 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 support and care for members in a non-judgemental way, with flexibility to respond to different people and situations
• To share information with members and the wider community

In brief
• Medicare-eligible midwives with a notation effective from 1 November 2010 to 30 December 2011, will soon receive a letter from the National Board with a new formal undertaking that provides an extension of a further 12 months to complete a Board-approved program of study preparing a midwife to prescribe scheduled medicines in midwifery practice.
• Midwives will be informed by APMA/Midwives Australia when the NMBA-approved course is available.

Joy Johnston, Acting President
Mobile – 04111 90448
Email – joy@aitex.com.au

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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.