Hospitals in WA not accepting Women who are choosing Homebirth with a private midwife:

The 2010 Maternity reforms are still not working.....Access for Private Midwives was to be achieved within the first year….Still not achieved…I wonder why it takes Australia so long to instigate credentialled private midwives. Surely it can't be that hard to set this up...after all Visiting Medical Officers (VMO's) have a system already....why not just emulate that one? It seems that procrastination is rife within the Health Dept.….2 and half years and where are we? absolutely nowhere:

As a private midwife I still cannot get access to hospitals…..here I am playing by the rules and some hospitals refuse point blank to accept a woman who is going to have a homebirth and being cared for by a Private Midwife…The Safety and Quality framework to which I as a private midwife have to abide by as dictated by the regulatory body (NMBA) states that the woman has to have the closest hospital to her (within 30mins) as her back-up hospital…. The Director General of  WA Health  has given a direct instruction to hospitals to allow access for midwives conducting homebirths….are the hospitals abiding by this directive? NO….what happens to these hospitals…..nothing…. What happens to the Midwife when she/he does not follow directives….we get the sack or reported to NMBA… where is the parity…where is the justice? Who is holding these hospitals to be accountable?

So where does this woman and midwife go? Where does the woman give birth? Does the midwife birth her at home with no back up hospital? Because the hospital refuses access the woman is not booked there, if anything was to go wrong we would then have to travel over 45 mins to get to the tertiary hospital. This is a complete farce of a system that is nothing but prejudicial against women’s choice of place of birth and midwives facilitating the woman’s choice. 

Midwives and women need to stand up and be counted…. There is a multitude of evidence to show that low risk homebirth is safe…..  The AMA is propagating fear and control by the constant mantra “We do not believe or support in homebirth”….it is time to fight back……..Midwives are not handmaidens to doctors…..Women have the right to choose and refuse treatment.....and women do have  a right to homebirth with a skilled midwife.

Picture_ Ref: http://wisdomfrombooks.wordpress.com/2010/12/01/3-ways-to-handle-frustration/