I hope this isn't a double up email - I have resent it as it
didn't seem to get through.....
Just thought I'd send this on for anyone not aware of
Maternity Coalition's latest campaign.
I just visited the website and plan to join up as this is an issue close to my heart.Helen (there is a great flyer for people to put up in their local community about the new medicare item number available at the site - see below)
Birthing women in rural and remote Australia
Maternity Coalition is seriously
concerned for the safety and health of expectant mothers and their babies living
in rural and remote Australia if the Federal Government succeeds in pushing
through changes about ante-natal care. What are the changes?
The proposal by Health Minister Tony
Abbott and his Department is to provide a new Medicare item 16400 so midwives,
registered nurses and Aboriginal health workers can do ante-natal checks on
behalf of a GP or specialist obstetrician for women living in rural and
remote Australia. The only positive from this proposal
is that the Federal Government has finally acknowledged there is a problem
accessing quality maternity care for women and families living in rural and
remote Australia. But their solution to the problem is just a
quick fix that gives women in the
bush second-rate maternity care from unskilled workers. If anything, it will probably lead to more
lives being put at risk in the bush. Why are the changes
unsafe?
Maternity Coalition is concerned
about a range of issues that this proposal raises but our key concern is with
the safety of care women will receive
under this item:
A tragic story
Already in QLD we have seen the
tragic consequences for a woman being cared for by a non-midwife. A nurse with no midwifery training, working on
a post-natal ward, didn't understand the need for women to urinate after having
a baby. Because of this, the woman, a first-time mother in her mid-20s had
to undergo a complete hysterectomy because of this simple omission. The mother
will never be able to have any more children naturally. Who is concerned?Maternity Coalition, a national
maternity consumer group, is really concerned about this situation. Other
professional bodies including the Australian College of Midwives also have major
concerns about the safety for women if this change is adopted by the government.
Many nursing organisations are concerned because they realise it will put nurses
in difficult situations where they are practising beyond their
competencies. What you can doMaternity Coalition and the
Australian College of Midwives are preparing a massive media/lobbying campaign
to draw attention to this proposal. But we need mothers and families from
all over QLD/Australia to help.
You can do a number of things:
Your efforts will help the extensive
political lobbying and media campaign Maternity Coalition is driving in the
lead-up to Parliament re-opening after their winter break. Your
personal effort could make a big difference as women will be doing this all
over Australia, especially in rural and remote areas. It will show the
Government the grass-roots, widespread opposition to this major change to
ante-natal care. Media messagesIts important we get our message
into as many different media outlets as possible across Australia. You can help us to do
this:
To give you a few examples, women
affected by this proposal could say to the media:
Contact usTo find out more about this
campaign, or to offer your assistance with the media so youre fully briefed,
contact: Liz Wilkes, campaign coordinator:
email [EMAIL PROTECTED]
or phone number is 0423580585 or 07 4638 0005. Leslie Arnott, national President of
Maternity Coalition: email [EMAIL PROTECTED]. Justine Caines, policy coordinator,
Maternity Coalition: email mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Your state
branch president of Maternity
Coalition |