Dear Andrea and list
Copy of letter I sent to SMH this morning. 'Changing the role of
doctors in chilbirth'
Anyone who can make it more succinct ... go for it!
Jan
Dear Mark Robinson and Editor
Doctors have created this 'sad insurance situation' for themselves by convincing healthy pregnant women that they should seek an obstetrician to care for them. Medical management of healthy pregnant women in this country has lead to a caesarean section for one in every four women and an equally disasterous post-partal depression rate.
Most obstetricians also practise gynaecology while GP/obstetricians have additional medical responsibilties. These practices necessitate highly organised surgery and room schedules with minimal time being devoted to antenatal visits and antenatal education. Births are 'slotted' between other appointments - often induced or augmented - not always the expectation of the uninformed pregnant woman.
State Health Departments are propping up an extremely costly medicalised maternity system in terms of dollars and customer satisfaction. Despite our maternity services being medically led, Australian perinatal death rates and premature birth rates are not as good as those countries where healthy women are mostly cared for by midwives.
Doctors are SPECIALISTS in caring for women with COMPLICATED pregnancies yet they are the lead carers of most pregnant women within state maternity systems and for all in the private health system. Health Departments have been slow to implement the recommendations of the WHO, the NH&MRC and the State Ministerial Inquiries into Childbirth Services that called for more use of midwives within their maternity services in the 1990s. Similar recommendations from the Senate Inquiring into Childbirth Services are only recently being recognised.
Midwives are SPECIALISTS in caring for NORMAL PREGNANCIES. Keeping in mind that normal pregnant women make up about 85% of the total childbearing population, the ratio of midwifery-led care to obstetric-led care needs to change.
State Governments need to provide insurance assistance to midwives (at the same time reducing the number of doctors practising within state systems) if consumer satisfaction is to increase and women are to have a real choice in their pregnancy care providers.
Doctors have created this 'sad insurance situation' for themselves by convincing healthy pregnant women that they should seek an obstetrician to care for them. Medical management of healthy pregnant women in this country has lead to a caesarean section for one in every four women and an equally disasterous post-partal depression rate.
Most obstetricians also practise gynaecology while GP/obstetricians have additional medical responsibilties. These practices necessitate highly organised surgery and room schedules with minimal time being devoted to antenatal visits and antenatal education. Births are 'slotted' between other appointments - often induced or augmented - not always the expectation of the uninformed pregnant woman.
State Health Departments are propping up an extremely costly medicalised maternity system in terms of dollars and customer satisfaction. Despite our maternity services being medically led, Australian perinatal death rates and premature birth rates are not as good as those countries where healthy women are mostly cared for by midwives.
Doctors are SPECIALISTS in caring for women with COMPLICATED pregnancies yet they are the lead carers of most pregnant women within state maternity systems and for all in the private health system. Health Departments have been slow to implement the recommendations of the WHO, the NH&MRC and the State Ministerial Inquiries into Childbirth Services that called for more use of midwives within their maternity services in the 1990s. Similar recommendations from the Senate Inquiring into Childbirth Services are only recently being recognised.
Midwives are SPECIALISTS in caring for NORMAL PREGNANCIES. Keeping in mind that normal pregnant women make up about 85% of the total childbearing population, the ratio of midwifery-led care to obstetric-led care needs to change.
State Governments need to provide insurance assistance to midwives (at the same time reducing the number of doctors practising within state systems) if consumer satisfaction is to increase and women are to have a real choice in their pregnancy care providers.
Jan Robinson
National Coordinator
Australian Society of Independent Midwives
You might want to finish your breakfast before you read the large piece in todays Sydney Morning Herald about the 'plight' of obstetricans facing huge insurance premiums. They are still 'threatening to leave obstetrics' apparently (wish this were true!) in droves if someone doesn't do something about the predicted rise in premiums next year.
The size of this article and the prominence it is given suggests that a lot of lobbying has been done - I wonder if the doctors are starting to feel the heat ofer the current midwifery publicity and they are trying a preemptive strike? We must have them scared to be reacting like this! Looks like they are trying to steal the limelight again..... However, there are more midwives than doctors, so we have the numbers!
You can read about it at:
www.smh.com.au
Cheers
Andrea
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__________________________________________________________________________
Jan Robinson
Phone/fax: 011+ 61+
2+ 9546 4350
Independent Midwife Practitioner
e-mail:
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
8 Robin Crescent
www:
midwiferyeducation.com.au
South Hurstville NSW 2221
National
Coordinator, ASIM
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
Jan Robinson
Independent Midwife Practitioner
8 Robin Crescent
South Hurstville NSW 2221
__________________________________________________________________________
