Re: [ozmidwifery] Not going with couples to hospital

[Aviva Sheb'a]

Crikey, they must wonder how the hell the human race spread so damn far before medical intervention! "They" probably think every second woman and baby died before their omnipotence was discovered. Grrrrrrrrrr. Aviva ----- Original Message ----- From: Lieve Huybrechts To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 7:54 PM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Not going with couples to hospital 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 > > >   ---   Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.434 / Virus Database: 243 - Release Date: 25/12/02