I did mention in comments on a previous story that I would write a review on the Homebirth Rally today, and here it is. You can also find the ABC News Online story here.
The rally kicked off at 10:45am with an indigenous welcome ceremony at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy at Old Parliament House, led by Aunty Isobell Coe, and indigenous birth advocate Fleur Magick. The crowd then marched up to the lawns of Parliament House – a colourful and noisy parade of brightly dressed mums, dads, grandmothers, grandfathers, children, and midwifery students carrying banners.
The rally proper started at 11:30am. With a crowd estimated to be between 2,000 and 4,000 people (depending on who your news source is), there was no way I could hear the speeches. But the crowd certainly seemed appreciative, and I did catch a bit of a gutsy rendition of “I Will Survive” towards the end of the speeches. Here’s some YouTube of Rachel Siewert’s speech (Greens)
Despite the rain and cold, the crowd were fantastic! I’ve been to a few protest rallies in my time, and the atmosphere today was cooperative, supportive, and friendly – unlike anything I’ve experienced before at a rally. I literally walked around all day with a big grin on my face, meeting people who had flown to Canberra from Perth and Darwin and Brisbane, caught buses from Melbourne, driven down from Newcastle and Sydney, and taken their lunch break from Canberra offices to be there for the event.
A few highlights from the event for me, as I wandered around meeting up with friends and trying to stay out of the rain:
* Meeting Susan Stark, founder of Natural Parenting.
* Seeing so many mums at the Australian Breastfeeding Association’s baby feed & change tent. We organised this knowing that it would be unworkable for thousands of women and babies to go through Parliament House security to access toilets or somewhere to sit out of the weather and feed a baby.
* Anthea from Real Chai said she’s never sold so many cups of chai in one day! Bec from Funky Brew was also there to do coffee.
* Seeing a wider variety of baby slings in one place than I could ever imagine possible!
* Hearing Kerrie Tucker talk about the wonderful experience her friends had home birthing their babies in the 1970’s.
* Finally meeting the most rocking roller derby chick in Australia, visiting from Brisbane for the rally.
I got soaked pulling the tents down after the event, and I didn’t have time to eat until dinner tonight, but it will all be worth it if Nicola Roxon gets the message. Photos to come when I can get hold of them.
Oh, and some more nice moments for me:
* Telling Justine Caines that her description of homebirth on Sunrise at 8:15am made me want to have a homebirth too. Sunrise video here.
* Drawing the raffle for I think it was a Blue Mountains birth group – maybe a Save Homebirth group. They were also fund-raising with homebirth music CDs, and button badges.
* And Brindabella Baby gave away lots of free Pure Wipes samples for people with sticky or muddy hands and faces to clean up.
So many great moments, but I loved everyone singing along with the Song to Nicola Roxon.
indigenous birth advocate Fleur Magick
You can’t make this stuff up.
Graffiti seen at Manuka shops yesterday: “JESUS WAS BORN AT HOME”. Somebody needs a biblical history lesson.
Why the hell would anyone want to have a home birth?
Skidd
Some people don’t have a choice.
Skidd Marx said :
Would you rather go through a lifechanging event in:
(a) a sterile and unfriendly grey room containing a group of strangers, many of whom are more interested in using drugs, medicalising everything and hurrying everything up as much as possible so that they can get to whatever else it is that they need to be doing, regardless of your plans and desires; or
(b) surroundings that are familiar, reassuring, relaxed and comfortable, with an experienced midwife on hand (with whom you have developed a personal relationship) and medical backup if necessary.
Jim Jones said :
Shouldn’t that be medical backup that is too far away if necessary?
I can understand wanting to have a home birth. For a start you can stay in the bath as long as you want to, instead of being forced to lie on a bed screaming in pain. And homebirthers have a sense of control over the process, and who is there, instead of having random strangers wandering in at any time.
In a similar vein – even with a minor splinter – Most people prefer to remove it themself,s rather than have someone else do it, let alone invite a stranger strap them down, invite in a series of onlookers and stab around with a scalpel.
TheObserver said :
Actually the issue is simply that – the problem is not the pros and cons of homebirth, it’s about the removal of choice from citizens.
I can’t understand why you wouldn’t want hospital care and their wonderful drugs either, but hippies exist so let ‘em choose I say…
Skidd Marx said :
Humans have been ejecting children from wombs for hundreds of thousands of years (freebirthing), but the safer-form of having a specialist lend a hand has been around for a couple of thousand of years (Ancient Egypt practiced midwifed home-birth, midwifery was a regulated industry then and under the Catholic Church in Europe).
In Australia only 0.25% of babies in Australia are homebirthed currently, with minimal loss of mother’s life thanks to specialists recognising symptoms and having higher standards of hygeine, but freebirthed babies have a mortality rate 170% higher than average, and freebirthing mothers have death rate 9588% higher than the average.
People who want to birth at home would typically choose an assisting midwife if they can.
This law denies them the right to assisted home-birth, but those mothers\couples who want it bad enough might just risk freebirthing.
Also, let it be known throughout the land that I am not Skidd Marx.
Why do these people expect Government, nee taxpayers, to fund their lifestyle choices? They can form their own organisation and raise the money for indemnity insurance.
You can have homebirths if that floats your boat, but don’t expect that the taxes of hardworking plumbers and miners should pay for it, and then to pick up the pieces when it all goes horribly wrong.
These people are probably also the ones refusing to immunise their children. Another silly fad with imaginary benefits.
*sigh*
the same reason other people expect the government to fund things related to their health and wellbeing.
I’m sure bike riders wonder why THEIR taxes go to roads, why childless workers taxes go on schools, why non smokers taxes go to smoking prevention campaigns.
Surely it is not that hard to see why.
Actually homebirthers fully fund their birth choice. The taxpayer pays nothing for our choice.
The reason that the insurer stopped providing insurance was not because of the number of claims, which were exceedingly rare, but because of the cost of astronomic payouts for obstetric cases and the small base of midwives available to pay the premiums.
As the obstetrician speaking at the rally said, it has taken this long for hospital birth to become nearly as safe as homebirth is.
Similarly the doctor who had homebirthed four children herself had a lot to say about the reasons for her choice.
But if you really want to choose a safe location to give birth to a newborn baby, by all means take them along to an airconditioned location where they’re treating people for swine flu and the like.
bingo jim [#6], well said…
thanks, emd, for the wrap up. let’s hope the desired effect ensues, eh?
chewy14 said :
The stats on home birth pretty much speak for themselves, it’s extremely rare that medical intervention is required (one of the major issues surrounding home birth is avoiding the overmedicalisation of birth which can have negative effects for both mother and child down the line). When medical attention is required, it’s even rarer for problems to be so time critical that the issue has to dealt with by a hospital immediately. Problems with birth are generally anticipated before birth, or quite early in labour.
homebirth is lot cheaper than hospital birth for the taxpayers.
and childbirth is a whole other level of pain. hospital ‘wonder drugs’ don’t even touch the sides.
that’s why people have gone looking for these hippy trippy alternatives.
homebirth is the norm in holland – it really isn’t some way out there bizarro thing.
Ralph- why shouldn’t homebirthing women have access to the same level of government support that every other birthing woman in this country has? Noone is arguing for more (as far as i can tell), but it wold only be just to provide equality. From what I can tell, access to medicare rebates would still leave these women significantly out of pocket, as women who choose to birth with obstetricians do. After all, even homebirthers pay their taxes!!
Ralph said :
Shouldn’t you be quoting Ayn Rand over on Andrew Bolt’s blog or something?
A simple solution would be for the right to sue to be withdrawn. Whether for delivery in a hospital or at home with a midwife.
No more crippling premiums, the cost of which is passed on, no more clogging up the courts, everyone’s better off. Except the legal fraternity.
If something goes wrong – well, shit happens. The ability to sue won’t change it.
sepi said :
Lies.
Link to a citable medical journal, just to drive the point home
Homebirth is more acceptable in Holland, in that it is a medical-professional and caregiver decision, not the mothers, and they have mandatory universal healthcare.
The fact that they are one of the most urbanised countries on Earth, are 1/200th the total area of Australia and pay astronomic supportive subsidies to allow citizens to use vroedvrouwen makes it a _lot_ easier to provide required care.
Low-risk births can homebirth with a vroedvrouw or choose to use hospital. 60% of all births occur in hospitals.
Vroedvrouw are registered, insured, and subject to very high standards, citizens are repeatedly stressed that the mother is the one most responsible for her child, not the vroedvrouw.
Choosing to homebirth a high risk-birth with only a vroedvrouw is akin to denying a child essential medical care.
She is just there to help the mother and catch the baby, not save her from her own bad choices.
Apples, oranges.
So 40% of all births in Holland are homebirths -still a pretty impressive statistic.
barking toad said :
I’m pretty sure that it’s impossible for people to ‘give up’ their legal rights in this country. And the ability to sue is still going to be necessary for cases of gross negligence.
The problem really lies with the legislation that’s being introduced, which seems remarkably poorly thought out (given that this issue is only really an unintended side effect).
As the phrasing of that abstract is not entirely clear, but everything since then has noted that rates of homebirths are falling in the Netherlands to the point that it still threatens the viability of the vroedvrouw industry (and it is an industry) even with massive subsidy…
“Less than 40% of all births in the Netherlands are adequately low risk that it only takes three years of specialised training and a safety net of being five minutes from a GP and about fifteen minutes from a specialist maternity ward for someone to put you through the worst pain of your life short of surviving 90% burns, in the ’safety’ of a variably-hygenic home.“
PS: The statistic may seem impressive to you if all you care about is a number, but see earlier indications re: population density, total area, and subsidies. Achieving anythign close to that in Australia would require billions of dollars that could probably be better spent elsewhere.
The worst pain of my life was from a medical induction – medical indication nil.
That is one point of view, but supporters of midwife assisted homebirth recommend it for remote areas where women are living a long way from a hospital, but may live close to a midwife.
Homebirth is a pretty small percentage in Australia, but has travelled along with no major issues for ages and I don’t see any good reasons to take the option away from women all of a sudden now, as part of regulating midwives more strongly.
I am highly supportive of a woman’s right to chose a homebirth, but what bothers me are statements such as:
“a sterile and unfriendly grey room containing a group of strangers, many of whom are more interested in using drugs, medicalising everything and hurrying everything up as much as possible so that they can get to whatever else it is that they need to be doing, regardless of your plans and desires” (Jim Jones, RiotACT)
“I’ve no doubt which method is superior” (Maree Cisera, today’s CT)
“what causes many of the complications of birth is fear and apprehension as result of misinformation which means the woman’s instincts are overridden and cause her to fight against what is natural because she is too often told that what is ‘medical’ is normal when what is medical is ‘intervention’ and actually unnecessary” (astrojax, RiotACT)
I’ve had three hospital births and none of them were the negative experience that seems to be constantly portrayed by the homebirth lobby. I had a midwife’s support when I needed it, and was left alone when I wanted it. I had access to a bath and shower and was never required to be on the bed. I was able and encouraged to try different positions. I had dim lighting and misic if I wanted it. I was monitored when it was deemed necessary, but was granted a break from monitoring when I requested it.
I had an emergency situation with my third birth and was extremely grateful for the medical intervention given. To be fair, if I had given birth at home I would have called an ambulance and been taken to hospital in time, but if I had been in a remote area, or another country, I might have died.
I support a women’s right to birth at home if she wishes, but I demand that proper medical care be available nearby. Likewise, I hope the choice to have a hospital birth experience is supported by homebirth advocates. I do think hospitals have come a long way from the medicalised birth that is portrayed (and which I think still exists in other countries) and providing more choice within a hospital environment should be a priority. (Birth centres have made a start, but it is crazy that you should have to be in a separate unit to birth this way and be ineligible for this ‘choice’ if you have a high risk birth).
I had negative hospital experiences in both public and private hospitals in canberra. Ignored, forced to be on the bed, not believed, intervention without asking, over medicated (first time), under medicated (second time). Not all the home birth descriptions of hospital births are propaganda.
I personally am still too gutless to homebirth, but I can see all the positives of it, and I support it as an option for australian women.
hey gnt, thanks for your stories of success – sorry if i gave any wrong impressions in my statements; i didn’t mean to decry hospital births at all (we are choosing one, due very soon!) and rekkun there is much to be said for having medical intervention, when it is required, on hand, as you did. but as you said, an ambulance would have offered you the same care you received anyway and, let’s face it, the vast majority of australians live in cities, ie near medical assistance.
as you also say, you support the right to birth at home, so i am curious as to what about my statement ‘bothered’ you? i was trying to point out that women can be left alone, with some good pre-knowledge as to what to expect, to pretty well birth on their own in relative comfort, or accede to medical intervention understanding their choice, not having it foistered unwantedly upon them – it is the mis-information that sets up the mindset that something is bound to go wrong/it is bound to be excruciatingly painful/etc that is awry with the current mainstream understanding, and so teaching / inculturating about the natural bith process that clouds the arguments for appropriate choice – which should include the choice for supported home birth.
As a doctor I find comments like these very offensive:
Jim Jones said:
A sterile and unfriendly grey room containing a group of strangers, many of whom are more interested in using drugs, medicalising everything and hurrying everything up as much as possible so that they can get to whatever else it is that they need to be doing, regardless of your plans and desires (Jim Jones, Post #6)
How dare you suggest that myself, my colleagues (midwifery and nursing staff included), have anything but the welfare of our patients, in this case the mother and child, at heart.
Without sounding arrogant, I suggest myself and my colleagues have a little more experience in this area than you do. I attended a delivery last night. A normal pregnancy and nothing to indicate anything would go wrong with the birth. If the baby had not been born in hospital, he most likely would have died. I see this regularly. This is why I am concerned, not because I have some burning desire to push drugs and medicalise everything.
I am all for a stress-free free birth and for empowering the mother to deliver in a setting she is comfortable in. I love the set outs of the various CMP rooms, which are co-sited in maternity units and don’t understand why such rooms cannot be available to all women. Why don’t you focus your efforts on improving birth centre facilities and staffing arrangements in a setting that is safe for both mother and child. Help families have the birthing they deserve while eliminating risks that are preventable in this day and age.
Is this where I harrow you all with tales of the emergency c-section for my first child and have you go “hang on, I thought you were a dude?”
+1 GnT. (That reminds me – time for a GnT).
Australia needs more (I believe better) birth choices that empower women. The status quo does not support safe options like home birth. We’re not talking about free birthing here, where you go it alone. Obstetricians are great and I’m bloody thankful we’ve got them (long story). But remember that obstetricians are surgeons and know comparatively little about birthing. These are the guys who know all about cutting babies out of people. Surgery is not and should not be the normal birth experience, except perhaps for those who choose it.
sepi, I’m sorry to hear about your negative hospital experiences. Exactly the reason we need more choice and empowerment within the hospital system.
astrojax, I guess what bothered me was the implication that my emergency situation (which, by the way, was retained placenta and post partum haemorrhage) was caused by fear, apprehension or misinformation, or that it might have been avoided by a home birth. You neither explicity stated this nor, I’m sure, intended this but I don’t think it’s fair to say “many of the complications of birth” are not as a result of genuine medical reasons.
I also want to say well done to emd, Granny and anyone else who attended the rally. It’s really nice to see people standing up for what they believe in and not being deterred by the weather!
the birthcentre (homelike atmosphere, midwife attended, attached to a hospital) does sound like a great solution for many women – unfortuately most women don’t have this option.
the canberra birthcentre is so overbooked you have to book in within a fortnight of getting prgnant, and is in danger of being abolished anyway.
Not everyone involved in homebirth advocacy is a nutcase. I am the ACT Branch President of Maternity Coalition, ACT representative for the Caesarean Awareness Network Australia, former convenor of Friends of the Birth Centre, and organiser of a free doula drop-in service. And I have elective caesareans with a private obstetrician.
My choice is made for medical reasons, but it is still my choice. It is also publicly funded, and granted to me without need for debate. If my choice is legal, why not the home birth choice for women who are having a normal pregnancy? Every woman has her own life experience and physiology affecting her pregnancy, and every baby is a person in its own right. This means birth choices should be made based on the individual circumstances involved, should be made by the woman with full information provided to her on all her options, and we should not be trying to direct all women into one or two care models.
I have discussed home birth guidelines with many midwives who provide this service, and none of them will touch a high risk pregnancy. So I think we can stop talking about high risk home births – they won’t happen under the care of a qualified, professional, registered midwife. And that is what we are talking about here.
On Monday night, Senator Gary Humphries hosted the screening of Birth Rites, a documentary that contrasts the home birth model used in remote indigenous communities in Canada with the routine moving of indigenous women in the Kimberleys, WA to have their babies in city hospitals far from their support network.
cheers, gnt, and no, i certainly didn’t intend that reading of my comments – i was speaking in a much broader acculturation sense. your situation was quite natural in its occurrence and indeed requires intervention…
and more cheers in agreeance to emd, granny et al at the rally!
Thanks, GnT!
: )
The rally was a wonderful experience.
I had four hospital births before I chose to have my homebirth. My last child was born in a hospital – my choice. I love homebirth. There have been valid reasons for the choices I have made in each case, which I won’t bore you with. Suffice it to say that there is much that the medical profession can and must learn from independent midwives on the subject of birth.
I am not a stupid person, and I believe I should have as much right to make this decision as I do in relation to any other choice involving a medical procedure for myself or my children. I am not trying to force my choices onto anyone else.
What’s right for me may not be right for somebody else.
If a woman feels safe and secure in a hospital then that’s where she should be. If something goes wrong then she will need help. Nobody is arguing that, and nobody is more aware of this than the mothers and midwives themselves. The outcome of a healthy, happy mother and baby is what everyone is trying to achieve.
sepi said :
Sounds good, I have no problems with these limintaionions at all. Abort if you want, I really don’t care. If you decide to have a kid I demand you spend every single moment thinking about what’s best for them, not you. It is important to spend the rest of your days doing whatever is possible to keep them as safe as you can.
Self-indulgent risk taking is not a great start
sb14 said :
You can be offended by whatever you want, but it’s not going to suddenly make everyone run around saying that ‘everything is wonderful everywhere’. There are aspects of hospital birth that are highly problematic in the past, continue to be problematic in the present, but will hopefully improve.
Stamping your foot and depending respect for doctors because ‘I know more than any of you’ does little but paint you as an arrogant so-and-so with little respect for the opinions of others (including, presumably, those who choose to have birth somewhere else).
sb14 said :
How do you presume to know what I have and have not done?
sb14 said :
Once again, the arrogant assumption that only you are fit to decide what’s best for the welfare of our patients (regardless of what the ‘patient’ actually wants). Go be outraged and offended somewhere else, I really don’t care about it.
I spend a large proportion of my working day informing parents and children of their condition, the pros and cons of management options and helping them make the best decision for them. When it comes to me advocating for a management decision, it is primarily with the safest decision in mind, and while patient convenience plays a large part in the ultimate decision, safety should never be compromised.
I may be arrogant, who knows. I don’t think so, and nobody has ever told me that I am. I have, however, been told by patients, doctors and nurses that I am a caring doctor who makes sound clinical decisions.
Group B Strep kills babies within minute to hours. There may be little to indicate during the delivery that the baby is at risk. Babies with fetal distress may have only moments to be born to avert catastrophe. I do not mean to sound arrogant, but I have seen this first hand, and this is why I believe a hospital is the safest place for a baby to be born.
You are entitled to your opinion, and I respect that. That does not mean I have to agree with you. Myself and my colleagues are devoted professionals, who work long difficult hours, in very stretched and stressful conditions, often with great personal and financial sacrifice. We do this because ultimately we love the job and the chance it gives us to help make a difference to peoples lives. I acknowledge that the health care system has problems, but to accuse doctors, nurses and midwives of anything but trying to do their best for their patients, I believe is totally unfair.
“(a) a sterile and unfriendly grey room containing a group of strangers, many of whom are more interested in using drugs, medicalising everything and hurrying everything up as much as possible so that they can get to whatever else it is that they need to be doing, regardless of your plans and desires; or”
Our son was born in hospital. The room wasn’t unfriendly at all, it was quite nice. Nobody was pushing any drugs on anyone or hurrying anyone up. No strangers were there. What was there was friendly & professional assistance as well as the best in medical care should it be required…which it was….urgently.
“(b) surroundings that are familiar, reassuring, relaxed and comfortable, with an experienced midwife on hand (with whom you have developed a personal relationship) and medical backup if necessary.”
Also sounds fine. Although the time/distance to medical assistance should it be required is a bit of an issue for many.
Point is….homebirth advocate or not, try to be honest about the options & present them as they are.
sb14 said :
I’m sorry if what I wrote was taking as implying that doctors, nurses and midwives weren’t trying to do their best for patients. This was not my intention.
However, you do have to acknowledge that the medicalisation and hospitalisation of birth procedures has generated a lot of unneccesary problems – the abundance of unneccessary c-sections, epidurals, etc. – along with this absurd notion that it is somehow irresponsible to give birth outside a hospital.
I have no doubt that you are a successful, caring doctor who makes sound clinical decisions. That has absolutely nothing to do with the issue at hand, and is little more than a rhetorical play to win the audience with an argument to authority (’look at the caring doctor who does everything because he loves people, how could he possible be wrong?)’ But good intentions are distinct from desirable outcomes, particularly in a medical setting.
These are problems that flow from viewing birth as a ‘medical problem’: something to be ‘fixed’. The current trend (as far as I’m aware) is shifting away from this, but it still very much there. As caring and involved as everyone is in a hospital, they are under pressure to move ‘patients’ through quickly and make spot decisions as to procedures. This removes agency from the ‘patient’ and often renders her little more than a medical ‘problem’ to be ‘fixed’ before moving onto the next ‘patient’. That’s the nature of the medical system, and it ain’t gonna change soon.
I’m unsurprised that a doctor thinks that birth should take place in a hospital. It might do you the world of good, however, to read what midwives and mothers have been saying about the issue. This is a good start:
http://www.joyousbirth.info/articles/medicalisation.html
Like a number of others, I have had a negative birth experience in hospital. The same doctor who tried to send me home at 2pm because “he’d seen women in labour and I wasn’t in labour” (and was shocked that I refused drive myself while having 3 minute contractions), sewed me up at 6pm. The nurse saw fit to tell me I had soiled myself while giving birth (I’d never have known if she hadn’t told me, it was humiliating for her to tell me given that six doctors had come to gawk at me without my permission, and I can’t imagine why she felt it necessary to tell me). I’d notified EVERYONE what medication I was on and still they managed to give me a painkiller that interacted and caused a seizure.
But still, I was lucky, because I didn’t get all PTSD about it afterwards, although I think I had every right to be traumatised after the amount of neglect and abuse I suffered. Some women do. Some women spend *years* recovering from a negative birth experience, because it is neglect and abuse suffered while naked and vulnerable, by people you trusted to look after you, who have control over your body. For some women it is like rape (although I’m sure our arrogant doctor friend will say I’m being overemotional).
I don’t think I have the guts to homebirth, but I completely understand why some women would.
I had the pleasure of giving birth at Canberra Hospital last Monday – it was an induction due to medical reasons, which most would assume would result in a labour that was full of intervention and a lack of control. This was not the case for me. I found the staff helpful and caring and they sought permission from me before bringing any additional staff into the room. The midwife was fantastic and provided me with excellent support during what turned out to be a very quick labour. The room was comfortable and I was encouraged to move around and/or shower or bath if I wished. My partner and I were very much in control (though in the end the rogueling was the one in control). Drugs were not offered until I requested them (not that I got a chance to take them). I was very happy with the whole experience.
Women (and men) should be supportive of alternative birthing methods, provided that they are safe for the child and the mother, rather than divisive – there is too much of that going on in the child rearing world already – and recognise that what is right for one may not necessarily be right for many. Home birthing should be an option, but there would need to be very strict regulation surrounding it to ensure medical attention is available if needed. As a high risk pregnancy a home birth would not have been an option for me. I personally think birthing centres are a great compromise as no matter what the initial perceived risk is, the outcome of every labour is as difficult to predict as the personality of the baby the woman is giving birth to.
Again – many thanks to the staff at Canberra Hospital – you did an excellent job!
Jim, this is obviously a topic you have researched well, which is fantastic. It is the actions of people like you that ultimately lead to changes for the better in dogma of institutions.
I was not trying to curry favour. I took your post as a swipe at my professional integrity and was defending myself. I had just finished a night shift and may have misinterpreted this, so forgive me.
I have spent a lot of time speaking to midwives in both the community midwife program and the birth suite. Midwives in the CMP are universally glowing about their program and about home birth. This does not mean I don’t have concerns about its safety though. Midwives in birth suite often acknowledge that the set-up is less than ideal, and wish that the design could be more family friendly.
I’m not in obstetrics, so I can’t really comment on the rates of caesars and epidurals. I have at times, however, wondered if a caesar was absolutely necessary, though I doubt it would be performed with absolutely no reason. I suspect medicolegal reasons and maternal expectations play a large role in escalating rates. There are two side to every story in that I’ve talked to mothers who have been through CMPs with the initial intention of no epidural, had a long painful labour, more or less begged for an epidural, and was essentially denied by the midwife. They are less than glowing about their experience.
I’m all for one-to-one midwifery care, in a comfortable room with bath and shower facilities, restricted access by other staff and minimal medical intervention unless requested by the mother, or absolutely necessary. I believe that this should be delivered in a hospital, you have other beliefs and I respect that. I promise to read your link (it is open on my screen so I don’t forget), but i am a little sleep deprived right now and consequently brain addled.
The people of Canberra currently have an excellent opportunity to make a lasting difference to how maternity care is delivered in the territory. The new Women’s and Children’s Hospital is currently undergoing preliminary design. Now is the time to stand up and let our politicians know the model of birthing facilities you desire. We have the chance to be national leaders in this respect.
sb14 said :
Although I advocated and wanted a home-birth I chickened out and had one of my babies in a hospital – I wanted the security of “the machine that goes PING!”. Made no difference. Low risk pregnancy, low risk mother – the baby still died. NO risk factors, no prematurity, “normal” ultrasound reports and a great big machine that goes PING! etc.
I support every mother’s right to choose where to give birth.
“…..a sterile and unfriendly grey room containing a group of strangers, many of whom are more interested in using drugs, medicalising everything and hurrying everything up as much as possible so that they can get to whatever else it is that they need to be doing, regardless of your plans and desires…”
Bloody hell: were you giving birth in the ACT Legislative Assembly!
Birth centre= home-like environment.
I may not want a home-like environment, but MY home environment. The one I know and love and to be supported by a medically qualified midwife. I wouldn’t mind being tranfered, before or during my labour, to a hospital if it were neccessary but I wouldn’t be comfortable. I know that motherhood insticts are a powerful human tool and I also know if I wasn’t comfortable I could not respond to those insticts. If a woman is comfortable in a hospital and believes she can get the best care possible for her and her baby than that is great. If a woman is comfortable at home with a midwife who knows what she is doing that is great too.
sb14 said :
Thanks sb14, I think in certain respects we’re in furious agreement with each other.
Canberra certainly appears to have much better facilities than the rest of Australia (I gotta say that the birth centre is particularly awesome) and is leading some very good trends in birth technique.
EMD – what is happening with the birth centre?
I’m sure it is fabulous – everyone says so, but not much good for the thousands of women who can’t get into it due to the enormous waiting lists. AND is any space being allowed for it in the new women’s hospital. Last I heard it was ‘not on the plans’.
Outside of the birthing centre, you are ‘assisted’ to give birth by whichever random midwife is on duty that night, and some of them are shockers. Also, they basically leave you alone most of the time – which is fine for some people, but their birthing classes indicate that they will be there holding your hand the entire time, which could not be further from the truth. And they try to make you go home if they are busy – which is a dangerous policy, and traumatic for the people it happens to.
I feel you get treated far better in hospital for stuff like getting ingrown toenails fixed than for having a baby – such a shame when it is such a momentous event in our lives.
I am still bitter about the treatment I got over 3 years ago, and I felt the there must be a better way of doing things, and yet I still couldn’t access the birth centre second time around.
Deejay – I am so sorry about the ‘treatment’ you received. Some people should just not work as midwives.
MWF
sb14 – should we be writing letters of support for the birth centre or something – what can we actually do?
Birth centres are better, but they’re still not home.
Why is it so hard to accept that the female of a species may be more comfortable birthing in her own territory and may not wish to be moved in the throes of giving birth?