Congratulations to Barb Vernon, Tracy Reibel, Shea Caplice and Barbara Salgardo for your excellent discussions with Geraldine Dogue on ABC Life Matters thismorning.
We have a great deal of work to do on public information as well as political lobbying.
I repeat Barb�s encouragement to send a letter to Life Matters. I will do that now. HYPERLINK "mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]" [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Here�s what I have sent:
Re Life Matters segment on midwives, homebirth and insurance 16 July 2002.
Dear Geraldine,
Thankyou very much for the program.
Your responses to the statements made by Barb Vernon, Tracy Reibel, Shea Caplice and Barbara Salgardo were interesting. You said that you had done programs on homebirth years ago, and seemed surprised that it was still an issue.
You seemed convinced that significant numbers of women REALLY are making informed decisions about demanding caesareans, as if there weren�t just as significant a group of women who want to give birth quietly in their place of choice (hospital, birth centre, or home), without the bright lights and the machine that goes �ping� and the cascade of interventions that follow.
You seemed genuinely surprised (I don�t think it was journalistic scepticism) when Barb claimed that there are fewer mother and baby deaths in the countries in which midwives are primary carers for most women. Surely you can�t get better than Australia???
It is that very fact, that we can expect to improve a whole range of outcomes for mothers and babies, that drives me, as a midwife and birth activist, to seek reform of Australia�s maternity services. It�s not a turf war - our system simply does not allow women to have the best evidence based options.
Shea talked about losing ground, in that midwives in Sydney had visiting access to hospitals when they were insured. Melbourne�s midwives, and many others, didn�t even get that far!
Victoria and Tasmania have NEW legislation (ie the goal posts have been moved) that gives the state registration boards the power to refuse to register a midwife (or nurse) who cannot demonstrate that they have PI insurance that meets the minimum standards set by the Board. We understand that the Tas Nursing Board has told midwives that they would not be deregistered for attending homebirths. I have no such confidence about the Vic Nurses Board. Boards don�t make the law; they have a statutory duty to implement the provisions of the Act.
Ten years ago I took a package from my job as an Associate Charge midwife in a public hospital maternity unit, to set up a private midwifery practice. In that 10 years, as I have learnt from women, read the research and critically examined issues, I have become more and more convinced of the imperative that midwives practice as primary carers, working with the natural process. My philosophy is that there should always be a valid reason to interfere. If the woman and baby are well, the midwife�s confidence and calm encouragement are all a woman needs to get the job of growing a baby, giving birth, and nurturing, done. If illness or complication arises at any time, decisions have to be made by the woman, with the support of her known midwife, and the specialist who is appropriately consulted, as to the best course of action.
Now I am having to turn away women who call to inquire about planning homebirth. My ability to do what I am professionally capable of, and what I am good at, has been taken away from me because I can�t get insurance.
By the way, I do not support elective caesarean as a matter of choice, any more than I would support the choice to have your (or your child�s) appendix or tonsils out, just in case they played up in the future, should that become fashionable (again). Birth is not an illness. Giving birth is one of the things that women do because we are women.
"Modern democracy explicitly acknowledges that women should not be disadvantaged because they are women. Yet women are still denied choice in childbirth, and midwifery continues to be one of the most disadvantaged female professions."
from �Good girls or autonomous professionals� Marie O�Connor, MIDIRS June 2002.
Please �Auntie ABC�, do all you can to air the issues of birth until our government reforms the provision of maternity services, and women are able to choose the way they give birth, and who provides the basic care.
Joy Johnston
25 Eley Rd, Blackburn South Vic 3130
Tel: 03 9808 9614
PS: My credentials:
As well as being an independent midwife, I am a member of the management committee of the Maternity Coalition, editor of its quarterly journal Birth Matters, and I contributed to the writing of the National Maternity Action Plan (mentioned on the program). I am also a member of the Nurses Board of Victoria.
Joy Johnston
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