Re: political action now
Title: Re: political action now Well done Bronni, see you at the meeting. Rachana From: Steven McGrath [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 17:09:51 +1000 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: political action now My name is Bronni McGrath and i am a mother and midwife currently not practicing (except for my wonderful girlfriends). i was introduced to this list by Jan Ireland a wonderful women who has been/is my mentor. i have been trying to keep up with all that happens on this list and have just read the latest emails on what is happening politically. i would like to let you know that as a consumer i have called a public meeting in my area (Healesville, Vic) to help raise public awareness of the issue of PI Ins. being removed from midwives. i have sent about 35 letters/invites out to families and written to my local papers (only 1 has published me). Myself and a girlfriend have also written to both local members and received open interested replies. i have never done this kind of thing before and as i sit down to write an agenda for the meeting the butterflies are fluttering! i would appreciate any ideas anyone has. i will be focusing on the effectiveness of consumers having their say ie writing to local MPs, local papers etc. keep up the great work everyone and know there are lots of us at home mothering trying to work out ways to support you all. Bronni
Homebirth stats
Is there any Australian homebirth stats avaliable from anywhere? I would be especially interested in vbac related stats and the 'general type'. cheers Jo Bainbridgefounding member CARES SAemail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]phone: 08 8365 7059birth with trust, faith love...
ALP Health Agenda
The Campaign Manager I was interested to hear Mr Beazley on the 7.30 Report tonight, especially his reply to a comment by Kerry O'Brien that their was not additional funding for health and education. He made a comment that the ALP would do some careful re-prioritisation. In the area of health I totally agree. If this is the case I am disappointed at the response our organisation received from Shadow Health Minister, Jenny Macklin (in a meeting in Canberra on September 26). The Maternity Coalition is a non-profit consumer organisation concerned with improving maternity services in Australia. Chilbirth is the single most important reason for hospitalisation in this country and accounts for the greatest number of occupied bed days. Ms Macklin was non-commital in her approach. We specifically requested access for all women to choose the care they receive and promotion of midwife -led care that is heralded to be the most appropriate and cost effective care for the majority (80-85%) of women (source WHO). What disappoints me is in the last 10 years there have been at least 6 inquiries into maternity services, including the Senate Inquiry in 1999 Rocking the Cradle that your own Rosemary Crowley was responsible for instituting. What all of these inquiries have highlighted is that our current obstetric based model is costly and is not 'delivering' good outcomes. All the research has been done, and is continually ignored. I am well aware of the power of the medical lobby but we are talking an obscene waste of resources. Our organisation provided the media with an estimate of savings the ACT Government could make today. Based on the 3,500 women who give birth in public hospitals in Canberra $785 could be saved per birthing woman, or $2,747,500 per year. These estimates are conservative and do not take into account a reduction in the number of women being referred to post-natal support services etc that an increase in midwife care would do. Hundreds of women are involved in this campaign to ensure governments take responsible steps to reduce such unnecessary spending and through that improve outcomes for women giving birth in this country. Your action in addressing this matter could heartily improve your support. Yours sincerely Justine Caines Maternity Coalition ACT Branch -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit http://www.acegraphics.com.au to subscribe or unsubscribe.
The Algebra Of Infinite Justice(LONG)
The Algebra Of Infinite Justice Arundhati Roy In the aftermath of the unconscionable September 11 suicide attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Centre, an American newscaster said: Good and Evil rarely manifest themselves as clearly as they did last Tuesday. People who we don't know, massacred people who we do. And they did so with contemptuous glee. Then he broke down and wept. Here's the rub: America is at war against people it doesn't know (because they don't appear much on TV). Before it has properly identified or even begun to omprehend the nature of its enemy, the US government has, in a rush of publicity and embarrassing rhetoric, cobbled together an International Coalition Against Terror, mobilised its army, its airforce, its navy and its media, and committed them to battle. The trouble is that once America goes off to war, it can't very well return without having fought one. If it doesn't find its enemy, for the sake of the enraged folks back home, it will have to manufacture one. Once war begins, it will develop a momentum, a logic and a justification of its own, and we'll lose sight of why it's being fought in the first place. What we're witnessing here is the spectacle of the world's most powerful country, reaching reflexively, angrily, for an old instinct to fight a new kind of war. Suddenly, when it comes to defending itself, America's streamlined warships, its Cruise missiles and F-16 jets look like obsolete, lumbering things. As deterrence, its arsenal of nuclear bombs is no longer worth its weight in scrap. Box-cutters, penknives, and cold anger are the weapons with which the wars of the new century will be waged. Anger is the lock pick. It slips through customs nnoticed. Doesn't show up in baggage checks. Who is America fighting? On September 20, the FBI said that it had doubts about the identities of some of the hijackers. On the same day, President George W. Bush said: We know exactly who these people are and which governments are supporting them. It sounds as though the President knows something that the FBI and the American public don't. In his September 20 address to the US Congress, President Bush called the enemies of America Enemies of Freedom. Americans are asking why do they hate us? he said. They hate our freedoms ' our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other. People are being asked to make two leaps of faith here. First, to assume that The Enemy is who the US government says it is, even though it has no substantial evidence to support that claim. And second, to assume that The Enemy's motives are what the US government says they are, and there's nothing to support that either. For strategic, military and economic reasons, it is vital for the US government to persuade the American public that America's commitment to freedom and democracy and the American Way of Life is under attack. In the current atmosphere of grief, outrage and anger, it's an easy notion to peddle. However, if that were true, it's reasonable to wonder why the symbols of America's economic and military dominance ' the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon ' were chosen as the targets of the attacks. Why not the Statue of Liberty? Could it be that the stygian anger that led to the attacks has its taproot not in American freedom and democracy, but in the US government's record of commitment and support to exactly the opposite things: to military and economic terrorism, insurgency, military dictatorship, religious bigotry and unimaginable genocide (outside America)? It must be hard for ordinary Americans so recently bereaved to look up at the world with their eyes full of tears and encounter what might appear to them to be indifference. It isn't indifference. It's just augury. An absence of surprise. The tired wisdom of knowing that what goes around, eventually comes around. American people ought to know that it is not them, but their government's policies that are so hated. They can't possibly doubt that they themselves, their extraordinary musicians, their writers, their actors, their spectacular sportsmen and their cinema, are universally welcomed. All of us have been moved by the courage and grace shown by firefighters, rescue workers and ordinary office-goers in the days and weeks that followed the attacks. America's grief at what happened has been immense and immensely public. It would be grotesque to expect it to calibrate or modulate its anguish. However, it will be a pity if, instead of using this as an opportunity to try and understand why September 11 happened, Americans use it as an opportunity to usurp the whole world's sorrow to mourn and avenge only their own. Because then it falls to the rest of us to ask the hard questions and say the harsh things. And for our pains, for our bad timing, we will be disliked, ignored and perhaps eventually silenced. The world will probably never know what motivated those
RE: Homebirth stats
Dear Jo The group of independent midwives in Victoria who call ourselves MIPP (Midwives in Private Practice - a member group of the Maternity Coalition) have collected and collated homebirth data over the years. The last triennial report is 1995-1998, reporting on 437 planned homebirths. Jenny Parratt did the bulk of the work, with Annie Sprague helping and me in the background. (it's time for another report!) 22 women in the study had had at least one previous caesarean. Eight had undergone caesar for the previous birth. The report notes: Of the group who had a caesarean section in their most recent previous pregnancy, more than half had home births. There was one antenatal transfer, two labour transfers prior to delivery and one transfer for a retained placenta. One of the labours was greater than 24 hours long and two of the births were in water. The numbers of VBAC planned homebirths are too small to draw conclusions from these figures. We have simply reported on the numbers that we have. Some women engage an independent midwife to go with them to hospital for a planned VBAC. Those births are not included in the homebirth data. As I said in my email earlier this month, the Vic government's statistics on births in 2000 have been published. There is a report on this going into the next issue of Birth Matters. One of the clinical indicators is Rate of vaginal delivery after primary caesarean section which is 20.4%. I hope you are able to collect lots of vbac information and make it all publically available. People like you and Jackie Mawson and others who make it your business to find out these things have a potential for demanding change in a way that those of us on the job don't. Joy Johnston -Original Message- From: Dean Jo Bainbridge [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Thursday, October 18, 2001 9:36 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject:Homebirth stats File: ATT1.htm Is there any Australian homebirth stats avaliable from anywhere? I would be especially interested in vbac related stats and the 'general type'. cheers Jo Bainbridge founding member CARES SA email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone: 08 8365 7059 birth with trust, faith love... -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit http://www.acegraphics.com.au to subscribe or unsubscribe.
Admission CTG's
Dear List There was a question posed a few weeks ago about routine admission CTG's and their effects. I've been trying to dig up the article on this and now I have it so I hope it is not too late for the midwife who was after the information. It is: Mires, G., Williams, F. Howie, P. (2001), Randomised controlled trial of Cardiotocography versus Doppler auscultation of fetal heart at admission in labour in low risk obstetric population, BMJ, 322: 1457-1462. The conclusion states: There were no significant differences in the incidence of metabolic acidosis or any other measure of neonatal outcome among women who remained at low risk when they were admitted in labour. However, compared with women who received doppler auscultation, women who had admission CTG were significantly more likely to have continuous fetal heart rate monitoring in labour, augmentation of labour, epidural analgesia, and operative delivery. Compared with doppler auscultation of the fetal heart, admission CTG does not benefit neonatal outcomes in low risk women. It's use results in increased obstetric intervention, including operative delivery. (p1457) Hope this is of some benefit. Cheers Bec Clinical Learning Coordinators Trevor Cresp (pager 4287) Rebecca Smith (pager 4304) Michelle Unetta (pager 4428) -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit http://www.acegraphics.com.au to subscribe or unsubscribe.
FW: Setting Up a National Maternity Consumers' body
Dear ozmiders, FYI this has been sent to a range of consumers and midwives for comment. -- From: Vernon at Stringybark [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Fri, 19 Oct 2001 11:13:24 +1000 To: National consumers, ozbirth [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: Nat consumers - midwives Subject: Setting Up a National Maternity Consumers' body Dear all, RE PROPOSAL TO CREATE A NATIONAL MATERNITY CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION In summary this email makes the following points: 1. there is widespread support for the idea of a national maternity consumers body to lobby on national issues 2. any such body should complement not replace existing groups 3. there is value in having legal protection afforded by incorporation 4. an efficient way to set up a national body is to link up with an existing organization 5. your group's views are sought on the prospect of joining either AIMS or Maternity Coalition with a view to forming a national body. INTRODUCTION There has been an overwhelmingly positive response to my email of 17 September inviting interest in the idea of forming a new national maternity consumers body of some sort. Enthusiastic support has come from all parts of Australia from Far North Qld round to WA. Thank you to all those who forwarded the 17 Sept email. Thanks also to all those who replied. I have appended the original message below for those of you who did not receive the 17 Sept email. On recommendation from midwives and other consumers I have extended the list of email recipients to try and cover as many consumer organizations as possible. If you are NOT interested in receiving any further emails on this topic please send me a reply and I will remove you from the list. If you know of a consumer or midwifery group not covered in the email list above but who may be interested in participating in a national maternity body please forward this message to them. I apologize for this being a lengthy email - please note the invitation under the heading of 4. YOUR GROUPS VIEWS ARE NOW SOUGHT... to comment on the issues raised here either as a REPLY ALL or to me by 31 October or ASAP thereafter. OVERVIEW 1. YOUR VIEWS TO DATECONSUMERS MIDWIVES VIEWS 2. POINTS OF CONSENSUS 3. SO WHERE TO FROM HERE? - PROFILES OF AIMS MATERNITY COALITION 4. YOUR GROUPS VIEWS ARE NOW SOUGHT... 5. BACKGROUND - ORIGINAL 17 SEPT EMAIL 1. YOUR VIEWS TO DATE The following are a sample of the comments received from people to date: FROM COMSUMERS I am delighted to have been forwarded your email. It sure looks as if the time is fertile for a national consumer body...(Brisbane) I am in Cairns, North Qld and would be happy to join in a coalition for midwives mothers. How can I contribute? Would be interested in joining up. I am currently an active member of the Maternity Coalition and run Choices after Caesarean: Empowering Women in Melbourne. This proposal seems to be an important one, and certainly one that consumer groups like ourselves should be involved in right now. I am part of Birthplace Support Group (in Perth) - our local birth choices network - and I am sure that we would be interested in being part of a national coalition of some sort. Creative Birth Options - recently formed info and support group - we're are tiny but we're very enthusiastic and took front page of 2 newspapers in the area today!!! Please let us know what we can do to help. FROM MIDWIVES I am most anxious to see a collaborative effort of all consumers and midwives to continue. There is still much progress to be made and perhaps an umbrella organization would be most useful in achieving those common goals and best utilizing energies Lets continue to move forward in unity. I have been reading Kerreen Reiger's new book, 'Our Bodies Our Babies: the forgotten women's movement'. It deals with a lot of the history of childbirth reform, and one of the points she makes is that childbirth groups have tended to be small and with organizational difficulties. There has been in the past a lot of duplication of effort, and women are trying to do it all at the same time as carrying and nurturing babies. My vision is that [a national body]...can overcome some of the fragmentation and inefficiencies of the past. I think this idea is great - and wish you every success. Great idea, I think a national approach is the way to go, to lobby in an organized planned way, that can link all the various groups. I have found the last few weeks overwhelming. So much to do and the feeling that as a group, women and midwives have so little power compared to AMA and such. For this reason, I think it is important that we band together to pool our resources and support each other. We won't get far if every town, State is re-inventing the wheel. But we will burn out quickly. Most of us have young families: a huge commitment in itself. I fully support the idea that we form a National group 2. POINTS OF
Re: The Algebra Of Infinite Justice
Denise, I know this is way OT regarding the general list content, but... Thank you for providing me with an opportunity to read something sensible and illuminating on the circumstances of the politics of this atrocious conflict. Unlike much of what we read and hear, so much of what Roy says adds to my knowledge of the history behind this conflict and expands on some concerns that I have had as to what is being said and done in response to the terrorist attacks. And it is so markedly different from the sweeping generalisations and rash sentiment that is most often heard in justification for carrying out violence on such a feeble and crippled nation. Jo -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. Visit http://www.acegraphics.com.au to subscribe or unsubscribe.
