Sunday Night Channel 7 -did a story about Homebirth and the Rally

Seeing RED with Dr Pesce

It was good to see that someone covered the Homebirth "Mother of all Rallies" story - however there is nothing like seeing red when Dr Andrew Pesce Obstetrician and head of the AMA categorically states that "he does not support homebirth".

" why fix something that is not broken - Australia has one of the best safety rates" well little does he know about women - then to infuriate women more he states

"why fix something that is not broken, why give people choice just because they want it"

How arrogant, how dare he disregard people, I could pull apart many of his comments, but this one takes the CAKE!

That in its self tells you that there is no respect for women and their ability to choose what they want - it is about being paternalist and thinking he knows best! and that is not the case.

Secondly to respond to Dr Pesce comments "My colleagues and I have seen things that would make the hair stand on end" referring to decisions that some homebirth midwives have made. Well Dr Pesce I and my colleagues have seen decisions made by Doctors in the hospital setting that would make your hair stand on end, some very late bad decisions - no one is perfect - so don't throw stones if you live in a glass house.
Have you heard of the word collaboration - working with Midwives as equals?

Thank you Sunday Night for presenting the story, however it would of also been appreciated if you had sort the view of the Australian College of Midwives / or some Midwifery input to respond to the AMA - equal for equal - not medically dominated by the AMA.
Those who want to view this show "Homebirth who chooses?" go to Sunday Night Channel 7 yahoo.com

HOMEBIRTH IS A CHOICE NOT A CRIME

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!

The passion of football / Soccer

Last week I went with my husband to watch Perth Glory play Victory (Melbourne), it was a bitterly cold night, so we were both rugged up with our scarfs and hats. There was a crystal clear sky and thank goodness no rain. There was approximately 8000 people watching, and I have to say the majority were male, some women and children. The testosterone was clearly flying through the air; occasionally I felt its foul swipe.

I really do not understand the passion of football, come to think of it I do not understand the passion of totally loosing self control at a concert, I never have had the desire too, have watched others do it and just don’t get it.

We sat amongst the opposition. Out of the 8000 people who attended approximately 100 people had the Melbourne colours on and we were sitting next to them. This was not an all together pleasant experience. They started off very noisily, shouting all sorts of chants, which I did not find partially pleasing. It was at this stage I was pleased I took my ipod. Now we were all watching the same game, so when clearly play is in front of you and the Glory player gets smacked in the jaw and lands on the deck, and the referee picks up the Victory player for rough play (Melbourne) and gives him a yellow card, the Melbourne supports did not see the same action – and did not agree with the ref – how does this happen? It was as clear as the nose on my face, there in front of us all. Ian then explains to me that they can only see out of one eye, this seems preposterous to me, the play is there for everyone to see.
There was screaming and shouting at the ref, the shed was going ballistic, the Melbourne crowd were chanting, have you got the picture! in the beginning the Melbourne crowd were very vocal about wining and how Perth was a sleepy backwater town (in some respects I agree with this comment), the score was 1 all at this stage, but when Glory scored the second goal strangely enough the Melbourne supports changed their chat from we are going to win, to we will be in the finals. I do think this is rather funny, unfortunately there were a few men who had too much to drink and there bravado become more aggressive and abusive, this is when it becomes ugly.

Now the game was won by Perth Glory, and the badly behaved supporters for Victory started mouthing off to the Glory boys and like idiots they rose to the occasion and right in front of us they started, testosterone was flying, security was on hand and we walked away. It is very easy to see how it all gets out of hand - and on what a grand scale it is in the UK a country well entrenched in its football hooliganism.
Looking forward to the next home game, but will make sure we are not sitting with the opposition.