MY BIRTH, MY CHOICE RALLY
MONDAY 9TH NOV 2009
from 10.30 am (THIS MONDAY!)
Outside the office of Tanya Plibersek,
Federal Minister for Women
111-117 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
Rallies are also being held in Brisbane and Melbourne
Hi all,
Please find at the bottom of this Newsletter a media statement for Nicola Roxon regarding a Midwives/Nurse Practitioner Amendment. The point that will redefine the fundamental nature of midwifery and certainly homebirth midwifery in Australia is that “collaborative arrangements with medical practitioners will be required to access the new arrangements”. In short this amendment will require midwives to work with GP obstetricians and private obstetricians and have a “collaborative arrangement” in place at all times.
This is NOT acceptable. How will it be possible for a midwife who attends homebirths and for women wishing to birth at home to gain the support of a GP ob or private obstetrician when their own college statement does not support homebirth?
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) statement reads -
“The College does not support Home Birth or ‘Free-standing’ Birth Centres (without adjacent obstetric and neonatal facilities) as appropriate Health Care Settings. The College acknowledges that a very small minority of women will choose to birth in these centres, even if appropriately informed of the consequences”
In solidarity with our northern and southern sisters (who will be rallying outside Kevin Rudd’s Brisbane office and Julia Gaillard’s Melbourne office) please come and rally outside the Minister for the status of women, Tanya Plibersek’s office in Sydney.
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.
Politicians need to understand that we have a very big problem and we are not going to go away. We have tried writing submissions, protesting in Canberra, contacting the health minister Nicola Roxon by phone and email, but she is not listening.
Our message:
My Birth, My Choice
We are:
Women, children, men, families, friends who support choice in birth, including homebirth with a private midwife.
Bring:
Bring banners, drums and percussion instruments. Let’s make sure we are seen and heard!!
Bring a 'calling card' to drop off, letting our Minister for the status of women 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 a request for a response from Tanya Plibersek about this important issue.
Rally organisers:
The rally is being organised by Homebirth Australia and is supported by Maternity Coalition.
More info -
HBA: Jo Hunter jophil@aapt.net.au 0412 315 228
MC: Lisa Metcalf l.metcalfe@tpg.com.au 0437 577 576
Roxen Media Statement
NICOLA ROXON MP, MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND AGEING
MEDIA STATEMENT – 5 NOVEMBER 2009
Midwives/ Nurse Practitioner Amendment
The Minister for Health and Ageing, Nicola Roxon has today circulated an amendment the Government intends to introduce into the Health Legislation (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill and the Midwife Professional Indemnity (Commonwealth Contribution) Scheme Bill.
This amendment makes clear in the legislation something that was articulated both on introduction of the Bill to parliament and in the explanatory material tabled at that time.
Following requests for clarification, this amendment will simply clarify in legislation that collaborative arrangements with medical practitioners will be required to access the new arrangements.
The details of these requirements will be specified in subordinate legislation following the ongoing consultation with the professional groups.
These bills are a key plank of the Government’s 2009/10 Budget commitments which recognises for the first time the role of appropriately qualified and experienced midwives and nurse practitioners in our health system.
The Minister for Health and Ageing said today “I thank the doctors, nurses and midwives for their constructive engagement to date to ensure these new opportunities for nurses and midwives are implemented in an integrated fashion for the benefit of patients.”
For more information contact the Minister’s office on 02 6277 7220
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