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My Birth, My Choice – Rallies in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth
(please forward this far and wide)
We call on you to rally to protect birth options and choices for Australian women.
My Birth, My Choice – Rallies in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Perth
Monday 9 November 2009 from 10.30am (local time)
The Maternity Services Reform process that promised so much to so many, is now at risk from the medical lobby, who would strip many women of birth choices and options that are currently open to them.
Nicola Roxon yesterday announced amendments to the midwifery legislation that is currently before Parliament which will fundamentally redefine the nature of midwifery in Australia particularly homebirth midwifery. The new clause requires midwives to enter into “collaborative arrangements with medical practitioners" in order to access the new arrangements. It effectively appoints private obstetricians and GP obstetricians as the gatekeepers for access to private midwifery care in Australia. This amendment requires midwives to have a “collaborative arrangement” in place at all times. If a midwife is unable to comply she will face loss of registration, insurance and Medicare.
How will it be possible for independent private practice midwives to support women to birth at home or in hospital? How will it be possible to expand options of midwifery care such as birth centres? How can home birth midwives "collaborate" with practitioners who do not believe that home birth should be available as a model of care for women?
Medical practitioners have powerful cultural and financial incentives to disable private midwifery and de-rail other models of midwifery care. The Australian Medical Association (AMA) have widely and publicly condemned homebirth and vilified privately practicing midwives. The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Genealogists (RANCOG) expressly state that they do not support homebirth or freestanding birth centres.
RANZCOG position statement on home birth reads –
“The College does not support Home Birth or ‘Free-standing’ Birth Centres (without adjacent obstetric and neonatal facilities) as appropriate Health Care Settings."
"Home birth should not be offered as a Model of Care".
Come, rally with us! Raise your voice to tell the leaders of this government that women must retain the right to choose, where, how and with whom they give birth.
Politicians need to understand that we will not take the erosion of women’s basic rights lying down, and we are not going to go away. We have written thousands of submissions. We have petitioned Health Minister Nicola Roxon directly through thousands of emails and phone calls. We have protested in record numbers outside Parliament House in Canberra. Roxon is not listening and she is failing Australian women and their families.
We are asking Kevin Rudd, Julia Gillard and Tanya Plibersek to guarantee that Australian women’s birthing rights are protected.
We need this to be as big as possible. We invite other groups to join the rally to make this the beginning of a very clear election campaign.
Our message:
My Birth, My Choice
Monday 9 November 2009 from 10.30am (local time)
Rally points:
Brisbane:
Prime Minister
Kevin Rudd’s office
633 Wynnum Road
Morningside Qld 4170
Melbourne (Werribee):
Deputy Prime Minister
Julia Gillard’s office
Shop 2, 36 Synnot Street
Werribee Vic 3030
Sydney:
Minister for the Status of Women
Tanya Plibersek’s office
111-117 Devonshire Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Perth:
Note: 11.10am start for Perth rally
Office of Stephen Smith
(most senior Gov member in WA)
953A Beaufort Street
Inglewood WA 6932
(see below for site specific rally information and contact / travel details)
Women, children, men, families, friends who support choice in birth, including homebirth with a private midwife come join us!
Bring banners, drums and percussion instruments. Let’s make sure we are seen and heard!!
Bring a 'calling card' to drop off, letting the ministers know that women want choice in childbirth and this includes the choice to hire a private midwife to birth at home (or in hospital). The calling card should be an A4 piece of paper (can be larger or smaller) with your name and address, concerns, experience, suggestions and request a response from the minister about this important issue. If you are unable to attend a rally, please send your calling card, by post, to each of the ministers listed as well as your local federal member of parliament.
The rallies are being organised by Homebirth Australia and are supported by Maternity Coalition, Joyous Birth, Homebirth Access Sydney, and Midwives in Private Practice.
More info
Homebirth Australia: Justine Caines justine.caines@gmail.com 0408 210 273
Maternity Coalition: Lisa Metcalfe l.metcalfe@tpg.com.au 0437 577 576
Site specific rally information and contact / travel details
Brisbane:
Brisbanerally contact:Kirsten Adams adamskirsten@hotmail.com
It may be best to park in the side streets and walk to Kev's office (eg. Burrai St., Agnes St., Rogoona St., Thynne Road). There are a couple of cafes and bakeries onWynnum Roadtoo. The nearest park is on the corner of Thynne Rdand Rogoona St and not that great. A better park is at the bottom of Burrai Stwhich turns intoPashen Street, HawthornePark, if people want to eat, meet up and let kids have a run around AFTER the rally.
Sydney:
Sydneyrally contact:Jo Hunter jophil@aapt.net.au 0412 315 228
Melbourne (Werribee):
Werribee rally contact: Melissa McFarlane melissa@boundlessblue.com.au 0423 155 460
Julia Gillard's office is located an easy 4 minute walk from the Werribee train station.
Travelling from Melbourne:
Travel to Werribee from Melbourneby train:
Trains departing Southern cross station:
9.03am - arrives Werribee 9.54am
Departs 9.33am, arrives Werribee 10.24am. (this would be fine I think)
Return trains from Werribee are available at 12.26, 12.38 and 12.46 and take approx. 40 mins to get back to Melbourne.
If anyone is considering coming from Melbournevia train could they please let us know what time, and again could a few people step forward to act as marshals for the Melbournecrowd.
Travelling from Geelong:
People coming from Geelongare planning to all go on the one train and walk to the office all together, banners flying.
Train times departing Geelongstations:
Marshall9.24, Sth Geelong 9.29, Geelong9.34, Nth Geelong9.37, NorthShore9.40, Corio 9.43, Lara 9.48, Little River 9.53
Arrives Werribee station 10.02
It would be great if we could have two Geelong people willing to act as marshals and be responsible for being visible on the platforms and familiarising themselves with the way to Julia's office, and lead the people walking from the station, being sure to cross at the lights etc (2 streets to cross). Return trains are at 12.26 and 2.27pm |
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"Birth is as safe as life gets" "
Birth
is as
safe
as life gets."-
Harriette Hartigan |
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Because we are too short, too tall, too thin, too small of foot, too old, too young, too wide, and our pelvises are too narrow, too small, too untried, or unproven or the wrong shape, and our uteruses are too scarred, or pointing the wrong way, or we are too multiparous, too fertile, too infertile, too female, too small, too big, too fat, too emotional, too detached, too strong, too weak, too intelligent, too well designed to birth, not designed well enough, and our vaginas are too scarred, too unproven, not stretchy enough or too stretchy, and we’re too inconvenient, too unpredictable, too demanding, too informed, too loud, too messy, and our bodies labour too long or not long enough, and our cervices don’t dilate 1cm an hour on command and because when you hire a surgeon you get surgery and hospitals are for sick people… and so for these and many other reasons, we are part of the homebirth movement. |
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Rally to save birth choices 11:30am Parliament House in Canberra 7th September 2009
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"Reducing stress often means a more successful labour, less need for surgical and other forms of medical intervention, and less pain relief. That has always been the banner flown high by supporters of homebirth—that, no matter what study you look at around the world, the degree of intervention and the need for pain relief is far lower. A mother is far more likely to have a normal, uncomplicated delivery when birthing at home. We tend to take our focus away from that and shift it onto neonatal death and stillbirth, issues which are still very difficult to prove. One thing is clear: the importance of delivery at home for mothers who choose it—for mothers who are mentally ready to deliver at home and who actively seek out that kind of service.
The thing is that Australia is a nation of choice. But we have a government taking the choice away. I cannot put it any more simply than that. Delivery at home should be a right. We have the hospital service that can support it and we should be fighting hard to make sure that indemnity is extended to the low-risk deliveries cohort. Of course we need provisions for high-risk deliveries. I acknowledge that. We may have to look at ways to achieve that in a large nation like this. But let us not become the first country in the world to effectively liquidate, to effectively airbrush away or to effectively snuff out the right to deliver at home" Mr LAMING in discussion Parliament.
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Some interesting points from well known midwife and educator Ina May Gaskin.
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Save birth choices
Do you want to choose how, and where and with whom you birth?
September 7th is the national day for a rally in Canberra. It doesn't only effect women who want to homebirth with a midwife - the Govt is trying to legislate birth and limiting choice. |
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Birth attendants.
Birth is about doctors or midwives?
Women? Now there's a concept.... |
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Ricki Lake & The Business of Being Born has some exciting announcements - a new site to check out & join, mybestbirth.com, for pregnant women, moms, parents & birth professionals, a new book in stores now, "Your Best Birth" and the online rental of "The Business of Being Born" now available at thebusinessofbeingborn.com. If you know someone who is pregnant, they will want to know about this! |
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Reproductive choice "And here’s the other thing. Even if homebirth or freebirth were slightly less safe than hospital birth, which is pretty contentious, this is not a reason to restrict women’s rights to makes choices about their own bodies." |
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A woman is safest giving birth where she feels safest... or so "they" say. But are they right? An increasing number of well informed mothers-to-be don't think so. Why? Because slowly the fact is being exposed that women and their families are routinely misinformed, or not informed at all, of the hazards of popular childbirth practices. Doctors, midwives, media, literature, friends, and family of expectant parents consistently send the same firm message: pregnancy and childbirth require and benefit from expert supervision and assistance.
What a small but growing group of lay women are realizing and beginning to publicize is that "assisting" birth itself -- whether medically or in a more "alternative" fashion - is usually far from beneficial, and hardly ever necessary. The thrust of this emerging movement should not be confused with such so-called "natural" childbirth trends as Lamaze, or the recent call for a reduction in cesarean rates, both of which ignore the root problem of institutionalized birth and rob individuals of choices through forced conformity to artificial standards. Instead, this far more respectful, more empowering movement's primary goal is to help women to liberate themselves to give birth to their children in safety and pleasure. Through the sharing of unrestricted information between peers, more and more families are finding out about, and choosing one simple option that can render all others obsolete: unassisted childbirth.
Unfortunately, because of the widespread fear of childbirth that has become entrenched in our society, it is necessary at this point for me to beg some readers to suppress their initial objections to this uncommon idea for just one moment. The fact is, millions of women across the world are giving birth unassisted already; most of them just don't know it. Until very recently, childbirth was always an involuntary process that the healthy female body performed automatically. Even today, there is no way to truly facilitate the process of birth itself without the overt use of instruments and drugs. Surgeons can cut babies out of wombs, and midwives can even rob women of the glory of catching their own babies themselves, but just as the miraculous force that forms an infant within the womb does its job perfectly without help, so does that same force faithfully push the baby out at just the right time when it is allowed to do so.
Before you begin to compose a fiery editorial to rescue me from my apparent naivete', allow me to share with you, one simple but profound revelation that two glorious unassisted births brought to me: childbirth is not dangerous. Life itself is dangerous it's true, and sometimes unfortunate things happen to perfectly good people. But just as healthy people would not take up residence in a hospital for fear of dying, it is insane to approach childbirth - a normal, healthy function of the female anatomy - with the focus on pre-empting disaster.
Our normal bodily functions are absolutely not made safer by monitoring and interference. Even the mere observation, or subtlest alterations, of childbirth processes have the potential to adversely affect the intricate organic symphony that plays out best in privacy and security. But childbirth itself - when it is naturally free from obstruction -- is as trustworthy as breathing. Eventually we all must come to terms with our human frailty, but the fact that tragedies exist must not be accepted as an excuse for the blind application of unnecessary "safety measures" that actually cause harm. Giving birth unassisted is a responsible, safe thing to do for all but the microscopic percentage of women that have such serious medical conditions as to make even everyday activities a challenge.
How safe would it be to breathe -- one of our most basic bodily functions -- with fingers or tubes and wires stuck down our throats? Emergency "medicine" has proven that it is possible to do this clearly undesirable thing. Likewise, childbirth is so reliable that it often proceeds very well despite serious insults and hindrances. But who in their right mind would freely choose artificial breathing over the real thing? If one were falsely convinced that "assisted breathing" were the most reliable way to ensure survival, one might be afraid to live without breathing tubes and monitoring wires, just as many women are afraid to give birth in the comfort and sanctity of their own homes today. But being convinced of a lie does not mean that breathing that way would actually be safer for healthy people. Attended childbirth is not safer for the majority of families either.
So what is wrong with attended birth "just to be safe?" If you've participated in any discussion of different childbirth practices recently you have probably heard or spouted some version of the slogan many times, "What matters in childbirth is the outcome of a healthy mom and baby." The implication being that any route to that outcome is acceptable or even good. This idea that "healthy" physical bodies is rightly of primary concern to birth attendants and their clients is almost universally accepted in mainstream circles. Surprisingly, the same assumption even goes largely unchallenged in the so-called "alternative" world of midwife attended homebirth.
What fails to be addressed often enough by anyone -- if ever -- is the inseparable connection between the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, sensual, sexual, and social components of childbirth. The solitary element of truth in that popular mantra "a woman is safest giving birth where she feels safest" is being ignored: If a woman is not comfortable, her birth is not safe, and no sane person is comfortable having an intimate and profoundly life-altering bodily function occur with spectators and interference.
Most people honestly seem to think that providing the appearance of respect for women's choices -- however hazardous -- is more important than the impact of the actual choices themselves. No sane person would agree that all that matters in sex is that a penis enters a vagina, for instance. Giving birth is a fundamental element of a woman's sexuality too. So, it is clear that such goal-oriented attitudes are just as inappropriate when applied to the complexity of the human spirit, emotions, mind, and body that are all deeply affected by childbirth. But our collective histories of more than 20 years of mothers subjugating their birth instincts to medical rape has made it very difficult for many women to question status quo.
For anyone to really understand the potential harm in modern childbirth practices and make positive changes, we each have to move beyond knee-jerk defensive feelings brought up by such an appropriately emotional topic. To effectively encourage the necessary change, birth attendants, educators, and peers must neither be coddling nor condescending to childbearing women. We "mere mothers" are smart. Not only that, but by sheer virtue of our anatomies, women are the preeminent experts of our own bodily functions. Having previously been discouraged from taking up that role does not change the facts: women are created able to give birth without any assistance at all. We mustn't be afraid to shout this truth from the mountain tops. If women can be trusted to care for their bodies during pregnancy and then to nurture their offspring until maturity, women can surely be trusted to make the right choices in childbirth, even if that means choosing to give birth unsupervised.
It's simply logical that when pregnant women and the people they choose to have support them through childbirth are not fully informed, many women will feel safe where they are not actually safe. So, as it turns out, the over-used euphemism in question here is worse than false, it is out-right dangerous. Thousands of women, babies, and their families are literally robbed of safe, pleasurable childbirth experiences every day by modern pregnancy and childbirth practices -- both medical and alternative in nature. And more than that, thousands of women are placing their own lives, and the lives of their infants, into something far more risky than their own loving hands: they are resting their futures in the hands of well meaning professionals who know no more about childbirth as nature created it than a rock.
Probably these words are highly offensive to both professional birth attendants and almost anyone that has ever hired one, and that's fine by me. In my opinion, outrage is a healthy and necessary reaction to a problem that has harmed too many women, babies, and their families for far too long. Birth attendants and childbearing women alike would do well to take a critical look at what I, and many similarly empowered and inspired mothers have to say.
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Articles and stories about freebirth one one site.
Freebirthing
"This site was not created in the hope of convincing others to birth without medical assitance, but simply to help answer any questions and curiosity of those who have heard of freebirth and want to know more."
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