Hoi Sue,
In some way things are the same here. We don't have a report policy, but the
hospitals in the neighbourhood have a loc-meeting. The gyns meet each other
several times a year and what I found out of it to the independent midwives
is that it is a gossip meeting :-)
Everytime we did something what they consider wrong is told through and
through without us having the opportunity to speek for ourselves.
So I have to let go of it, because when I am making myself angry it just
costs me energy.
In the beginning of my independency I went with the couples to the hospital.
But it did no good thing, neither for me, neither for the couples, in some
hospitals (I have to cope with 5) it are the midwives that are very
difficult, in other it are the gyns. I met very agressive feelings.
So when couples come to us I say to them what our limits are (whith a lot of
pain in my heart).
Recently we found a hospital in Antwerp where we can get acces as midwives.
We are allowed to do our own births in a polyclinical setting. We give this
information to the parents and they can choos to go there. A lot of them
find it to far to travel. I know for you in Australia 50 km is no distance,
but we have a traffic problem and sometimes it can take 2 hours to ride
those 50 km.
I hope by doing my work well in the homesetting we can gain respect of the
docters and in this way create an entrance to stay with parents in any
situation.
The ground of the problems is complex:
- we make the life of the gyns and peds difficult becausewe inform people
and then they ask difficult questions (you can't do consultations in 10 min
when somebody asks questions) and are not easy to manipulate (daylight
obstetrics)
- dokters are used to hospital midwives that just work as obstetric nurses,
they don't have any prenatal experience and are not used to have the
responsability for birth (a gyn is always present and does the act of
delivery).
- when they allow the independent midwives to do hospital births, they have
to admit that their role is most of the time not so nessecairy, that's not
good for their ego :-)
- medicalisation rate is high and docs and midwives hardly see any normal
birth, so they do believe women have to be saved. They think we take
enormous risks.
- gyns work on prestation fee, so every birth they do is money, every birth
I do is money for me :-)
- pediatricians are also used to see babys of medicalised births and they
also think we bring babys in great danger.
- breastfeeding is also a great problem, they believe mothers need help and
you can't trust a breastfeeding situation.
- my collegue midwives in the hospital feel threatened by our situation and
try to defend their position. Everybody takes space from them: gyns are in
charge at birth, peds do well baby management and now are independent
midwives taking labour out of their hands to. I can understand their
feelings very well.
So a lot of things have to change and I admit I can't do it on my own. We
are just +/- 35 independent midwives in Belgium and we don't have a strong
voice. So I learned (the hard way) to be patient and to enjoy my work.
warm greetings
Lieve
On 05-01-2003 23:44, "Sue Cookson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Hi Lieve,
> Just thought I'd respond to your comment about not going with couples into
> hospital - I take it that means if a transfer is needed.
> In 1995 a policy was brought in that any health professional could report
> anyone to the Department of Community Services, it seems that birthing
> unassisted or attended by anyone but a registered midwife is putting your
> baby 'at risk' and warrants reporting, as does {dirty} lotus births and
> probably a range of other things - maybe not taking all the 'advice' you are
> bullied into will become one. This did occur to one couple I know of
> earlier this year, and DOCS, as underfunded and overworked as they are, did
> visit the couple who now have a permanent file on themselves.
>
> We all know that there is no law in Australia to make it illegal for couples
> to choose to give birth on their own or with chosen support people like
> there is I believe in France, and has been in England. But as I said in my
> initial letter of grief to this ozmid line, the blinkered beliefs of the
> medicalised system of childbirths leads to all sorts of bother for those of
> us who wish to negotiate our way through the maze of ritualised medical
> assault. Reporting couples to DOCS is another form of that.
>
> So if the couple is accompanied harassment can occur. If the couple is not
> accompanied, ... same thing... in this area anyway. And having supported
> another couple in the same hospital only 2 weeks before to a terrific birth
> well supported by the medical team, I wasn't too worried about staying with
> them.
>
> I have over the years attended quite a few hospital births, but believe me,
> this one was the worst of the worst.
>
> Sue
>
>
>
>> Dear Sue,
>>
>> I think I understand your feelings trough and through. I worked in a
>> hospital for 20 years . They kicked me out because I was always fighting for
>> the parents, to keep medicalisation off and to get some of a breastfeeding
>> management.
>> Then I started as independent midwife and the first years I continued
>> fighting the rules in the hospitals I met. It caused me a lot of pain and
>> struggle and periods of disencouragement. The looks, the comments, the
>> gossips behind my back, I know it all. I got out of energy and thought about
>> quitting my midwifery.
>> Last year I learned to let it go. People know I will not go with them to the
>> hospital. It was a large step for me, because I want to be with them all the
>> way, but I had to survive myself. I will do my homebirths and I am happy
>> with every birth that goes how the parents intend it to be.
>>
>> We have a duty to ourself to, to survive as a midwife and as a human. We are
>> not superwoman.
>> It will be a pity when you leave the list, just when you need so much the
>> support of those who meet the same things. Maybe you can find a way yourself
>> by sharing your grieves to live with the situation and to make something
>> good of it.
>>
>> I wish you a lot of strength to live with things you can't change at the
>> moment and be sure, you change things although you are not always aware of
>> it, just by your way of thinking and being.
>>
>> Much love and support
>> Lieve
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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