Thursday, September 10, 2009

Mother of all rallies:




As you may be aware if you have been reading my blog that on Monday in Canberra was the Homebirth rally.
I was excited to participate by having a virtual placard present, which I think is a fantastic idea. It was good to see the sea of virtual placards in attendance of the people who could not physically get there.


Women, babies, families and Midwives from all over Australia attended the rally to show support for Homebirth – the choice for women to have a homebirth, as from 2010 due to National Registration and legislation independent midwives would not be allowed to register to practice as a midwife if they did not have indemnity insurance.



What was exceptionally disappointing was there was very little media coverage about the rally. I rushed home after work to watch the news and subsequent current affairs programs and no one reported on the rally, not one channel – how unfair is that!
This is big news, over 2000 women, babies and families attended to show how they felt and no one picked up the story, my question is why?
This story made page 16 in the West Australian on Tuesday, bottom right hand corner, that’s just not good enough, who is listening to our voices?

Is it that we are women / midwives and the story is not big enough, do we not matter?

I do find it interesting that when the AMA has anything to say or protest about any issue it is always reported in the news, why is that?
What do you think?

The photos were supplied by a colleague midwife who attended the rally.

If you wish to read about what the rally was like from someone who attended visit Lisa Barrett's blog - rally thoughts!

watch this space!

2 comments:

Laura Jane said...

Indeed! The silence was deafening!

Yet if the AMA farted it would be on the front page of the Australian.Sigh.

I had a virtual attendance placard there too.

Thank you for the link to register as an independent. I am determined to do it, just to be counted in the numbers, and because I CAN! No plans, but it would feel good.

InfoMidwife said...

Hi Laura Jane,
thank you for your comments, Sunday Night channel 7 run a story last night, but it just made me see red - Andrew Pesce made some outrageous comments - read my next blog and see the show for yourself - and let me know what you think, and the strugle continues - sometimes I feel we are back in the dark ages, men making decisions about women - I am surprised we are allowed to vote! thats a choice isn't it!
cheers

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