Well said Tania!
All midwives and midwifery students should be working together, supporting each other (regardless of education, experience or workplace) for the whole midwifery profession and for the right of women to be able to choose how, where & with whom they give birth. How will things ever change if we don't all 'stick together', join ACMI and support MC's efforts?
Where is the support for those midwives who currently practise without the benefit of PII and whose registrations and income are at risk? The whole profession should be outraged that women in the NT are effectively being told that they can no longer have homebirths and that highly skilled midwives are being told to stop supporting them. Who will be held accountable if complications occur during an unassisted homebirth? Regardless of our personal beliefs, the evidence continues to support homebirth as a safe option for healthy pregnant women and we should all be outraged that women are being denied this.
What about the closure of smaller maternity units and a case-load program, the shift of a birth centre that sees care now fragmented over different unsuitable locations (in Victoria)? What are all midwives doing about it? We would have a much greater voice if we all stood together.
My rant over...
Andrea Bilcliff
----- Original Message ----- From: "Tania Smallwood" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
...what is relevant is that right now there are lots of us in
this great country of ours, educated in varying ways, to be with women as midwives. We need to embrace that, not allow it to tear us apart...
... There is so much at stake for women and midwives at the moment in our
current environment of political dictatorship and fear of litigation.
Sadly, this seems to interpret into the midwifery profession falling apart
at the seams, with little factions forming, all with their own idea of what
midwifery truly is. I find it sad that I can truly appreciate the skill and
worth of the midwife who works tirelessly in the NICU, (and I am acutely
aware that I don't posess some of those necessary skills for that area),
supporting families and babies through a tenuous time, but that I don't
receive the same respect back, as I work using my own set of skills,
supporting women to birth safely at home. We are all skilled, in many
different ways. Our diversity and differing areas of skill and interest
should be what unites us, not what forces us apart. And the ways in which
we are educated to work in our area of calling should also be that of great
interest, information sharing, and a means of learning from each other, not
a wedge to drive our profession even further away from unity.
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