Hi all,
due to the strict instructions on letters submitted for publication at the CT - I have had to rejig the previous letter to the editor to less than 350 words !!!
So here is the abridged version resubmitted !!
Yours in birth,
Tina Pettigrew
Birthworks
Independent CBE and aspiring B.Mid Midwife.
Convenor, Aust B. Mid Student Collective.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BMidStudentCollective
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
" As we trust the flowers to open to new life
- So we can trust birth"
Harriette Hartigan.
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To the Editor, CT.
I write on behalf of members of the Australian Bachelor of Midwifery Student collective, in response to the article 'Obstetrician fed up with the hostility' (CT 12/0102) in which retiring Canberra Obstetrician and Chair of the ACT Medical Board, Dr. Heather Munro, suggests that, graduates of the 3 year undergraduate midwifery education program, (Bachelor of Midwifery), will be under-skilled and require nursing in order to recognise sickness and ill-health in pregnant and birthing women.
Dr Munro's suggestion is totally unfounded and demonstrates a gross
misunderstanding of what constitutes Bachelor of Midwifery (B Mid) Education. As aspiring B Mid midwives, we strongly object to Dr Munro's inference that as B Mid graduates, we will somehow be deficient in certain aspects of our knowledge and skills because we are not nurses!
The UK and New Zealand has for many years prepared the majority of their midwives via three and four year midwifery education programs. Other countries such as the Netherlands, France, Demark, Germany and Sweden, have always educated their midwives 'directly' as opposed to 'indirectly' via nursing and boast the highest of practice standards and report the lowest clinical outcomes in terms of maternal and perinatal mortality and morbidity in the world. Evaluations of these comprehensive three and four year midwifery programs shows that B Mid graduates are confident and competent midwives and when compared with their nurse-midwife peers educated via post-registration (nursing) programs, posses similar academic and practice standards. In New Zealand, all one-year post-registration (nursing) programs have now ceased in favour of the three-year Bachelor of Midwifery education programs - a move initiated by nurses themselves who considered their one-year midwifery program to be inad!
!
equate!!
As members of the Australian Bachelor of Midwifery Student Collective, we implore those who share Dr. Munro's sentiments and do not support the introduction of B Mid education programs, to please educate themselves and others as to the actuality of the B Mid so as to not perpetuate such myths, and to contribute to open, honest and constructive dialogue, in a spirit of discovery, sensitivity and respect for the benefit of all concerned.
Yours sincerely,
Tina Pettigrew,
Prospective B Mid Student,
Convenor, Australian Bachelor of Midwifery Student Collective.
30 William Street
Leopold, Vic. 3224.
(03) 52503065
