Dear Macha It's music to an 'older' activist's ears to hear you say "I'd love to start a natural birth and child care movement where I live!!!". You have taken the first step. Please keep going. This group has the people and knowledge to help you do just that.
It is truly reprehensible that small community hospitals are closing maternity services, and this has been happening for years. It goes against world standards for best practice: "The district is the basic unity for planning and implementing [maternity] care" (WHO 1994 Mother-Baby package. Implementing safe motherhood in countries.) You are correct in suggesting that midwives should be able to provide the basic service for the majority of pregnant women throughout pregnancy and birth and thereafter. That's what midwives are supposed to do. The women who develop medical or obstetric complications may need to be transferred to a bigger unit, and most of them will know that in advance of labour. Closing local maternity units means that ALL women are treated as if they have complications. Inductions for reasons other than acceptable medical reasons become more common, often because distance of travel becomes an issue, and the cascade of interventions sets in. If you are serious about starting a natural birth and child care movement, see if you can find a couple of other women (consumers), a couple of midwives who know how to practise under their own responsibility, and other interested people who bring useful skills, and get a little community action group going. You need to develop a plan to establish a midwife managed unit, similar to a birth centre, with midwives taking caseloads. Get someone to manage media exposure. If there are supportive doctors, they can help, but you don't need them necessarily. (I'm sticking my neck way out, but I stand by that statement!) Find support in the rural section of the Health dept, and in Community Services. Make it a community issue. Expect opposition, and plan ways to overcome it. Use the term 'Community Based Midwifery', and get your community to own it. Link in with Maternity Coalition. We can't do it for you, but we can support you. You may have read on this list of the National Plan for Community Based Midwifery that is being developed - if you want to see the draft, please contact me, or Barb Vernon. My advice is, GO FOR IT! Joy Johnston 25 Eley Rd Blackburn South Vic 3130 Tel: 03 9808 9614 Fax: 03 9808 3611 M: 04111 90448 www.aitex.com.au/joy.htm -----Original Message----- From: Macha McDonald [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Monday, January 21, 2002 8:15 PM To: ozmidwifery Subject: activism << File: ATT00003.htm >> I'd love to start a natural birth and child care movement where I live!!! They may stop delivering at our local hospital (Cobram) because the obs cant afford the leap in insurance. I wander if people resorted to our many midwifes, they could still deliver here. The problem is information. I liken my learning of birth options to picking subjects in my final years of school. "You have 10 minutes to submit your subject requests". Essentially, 10 minutes to decide what you want to do with the rest of your life. The GP said to me when I found out I was preg, "Which hospital will you deliver in". Hold on. I haven't even come to terms with being preg yet. So, I picked the nearest womens and childrens. And I regret it so much. I wish I had said, I'll tell you in the next visit. I thought I was expected to decide then and there. Unfortunatly, this is how many women are learning about birth options. Going through awful invasive experiences before they learn that they have choices. Regards, Macha. -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.
