Justine Caines wrote:
Dear Liz
So nice to hear your honesty.
But what are you learning? None of this is about what women can do or
supporting them to achieve the best outcome, it is about protecting a system
and it's regular inhabitants. It is production-line birth.
Why not ask an independent midwife if you could get to know a woman and
provide some support and see what birth can be?
I really despair that newer midwives are forced into such a system (even
most Bmidders!). It must be really hard to keep the faith or believe in
fact that it can be different.
For fyi, student midwives here in SA are *forbidden* to seek experience
of any kind with any independently practicing midwife, on threat of a
fail grade for the clinical topic &/or expulsion from the course. The
uni (s) then have the cheek to say things like this on their website
advertising the course:
"Midwifery programs at *** reflect the philosophy of 'women-centred'
midwifery practice. Midwives are therefore educated to provide safe,
effective care that recognises the needs of individual women in relation
to choice, control and continuity of care. *** has a strong commitment
to excellence in midwifery education, practice and research. The School
of Nursing and Midwifery has the expertise to support this commitment
and has been in the forefront of midwifery innovation and development in
Australia.
The aim is to prepare midwives to practise as competent, confident
practitioners _in all settings_ (my underline) according to the full
role and sphere of practice described in the international Definition of
a Midwife (World Health Organisation, 1992)."
After lobbying for years to get the BMid off the ground (& then doing it
myself), with the intention that 'changing the face of midwifery' needed
to start at the education level, I'm feeling thoroughly disillusioned
that significant change will happen *in my lifetime*! Midwives here on
the list often allude to the glacial (as in very slow) rate of change in
institutions ie hospitals, well universities are institutions too & the
changes the PTBs at that level promised are still a very long way away.
Independent midwives are made to feel that we are not 'responsible
people', the fact that we are practicing without insurance (as if this
is a choice!) completely devalues what we offer to women, and those
students who have done 3 years hard slog to become a midwife who can
work in *any setting* are denied any chance to actually experience one
of a very few work options that allows midwives to work within the full
scope of practice. In short, the blurb like the one above to advertise a
course of study is an outright lie. They are good at 'talking the talk',
but they want someone else to do the walking for them!
--
Jennifairy Gillett RM
Midwife in Private Practice
Women’s Health Teaching Associate
ITShare volunteer – Santos Project Co-ordinator
ITShare SA Inc - http://itshare.org.au/
ITShare SA provides computer systems to individuals & groups, created
from donated hardware and opensource software
--
This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics.
Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe.
