A mesage from Bruce about the ongoing discussion on homebirth and attendants.
Christmas Cheer, Toni From: "Bruce Teakle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Toni Cannard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: HOT TOPIC - ozmidwifery list Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 17:37:01 +1000 Dear Ozmidwifery list I've been forwarded Trish David's response to Toni Cannard's call to support the families who went to the Brisbane court house to express their feelings at the loss of Claire Brassard from their service. I'd like to give some feedback from a consumer perspective. My involvement in the current campaign by Qld families to gain access to homebirth services has been a fascinating journey. My starting point, to which I return every time I look up from the computer, is in a family with children born at home. Our choices of approach to birth are born out of a sense of responsibility to ourselves, to make good choices, and to own the outcomes. Our choice to be involved in consumer activism is born out of a sense of responsibility as citizens, (plus a dose of self interest) to step into the scene when the systems that claim to serve us have failed. They have failed. Access to home or even birth centre care in Qld is completely inadequate. For most people it's non existent, along with real information about the relative merits of the options. The quality of care available in hospitals for women capable of "normal" birth is unsatisfactory. I won't try here to rationalise this claim except to point to hospital statistics on intervention rates. I don't blame midwives, I don't even blame obstetricians. It's a system failure and blaming individuals or groups is not going to help. I do want to draw some attention to the question I've had on my mind lately - have the midwives been lost to their institutions? >Trish wrote: >Women might want choices, but they want and deserve some assurance that the >choices they make are from safe alternatives. They must trust the >profession to regulate itself in their interests because not every woman >has the resources to investigate each birth attendant herself. This is >actually working quite well, and the processes put in place to begin >national standardisation in the last couple of years will assure that it >works even better in the future. _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.
