The woman only found out by chance that her request was rejected - she states
They knew that at 37 weeks you can't fight,"Ms Caines said.
This woman who has been a maternity advocate in the region for eight years, said she was upset that women in the Upper Hunter were given fewer choices when it came to delivering their babies than elsewhere in the region.
she said.
"As a leading advocate I hold dear the fact that there needs to be benchmark of safety and quality,"
It's birth by postcode
The outcome is that this woman has now employed a private midwife for the birth, but not all women have have this option or resources to do this.
The reason the hospital gave for not allowing the homebirth was
...did not meet the criteria for a home birth because she did not have a GP who would support her and she needed to have a midwife from the Upper Hunter area.
There was no medical reason stated for the refusal of this woman's request, in fact she did have the support of an obstetrician and it made no difference to her case. This is a tragedy for women's choice.
Ref: http://www.theherald.com.au/news/local/news/general/muswellbrook-hospital-rejects-home-birth/1251837.aspx
The questions I am posing is; do our hospitals have the right to do this? and as a result of this, will the hospitals be forcing our women to "freebirth" or birth in a way that may not be safe and go it alone?
Would it not be better to find a compromise to suite all parties rather than a straight out "no"? do they think in doing this they can control women?
If we constantly refuse women their choices, women will find a way to do it? where does this leave us as a society and our duty of care?
What happened to informed choice and women taking responsibility for their own choices?
Why do we not allow women to make these choices? or are we just a paternalistic society?
Paternalism manifests in the making of decisions on behalf of clients/patients, where doctor knows best - that is the culture of our health care system - a culture which is hard to change.
