The pro­vi­ders of insu­rance with­drew from the Aus­tra­lian mar­ket about 2 years ago because they said it was too small to sup­port a birth-related pay out. Most home­birth (aka inde­pendent) mid­wives are wor­king without this, although it is ille­gal in some states.

This is only part of our pro­blem though, we have a sys­tem that doesn’t sup­port (and in some places like here in Queens­land state works against) inde­pendent mid­wives. We just had a pro­test last week at the Queens­land nurses coun­cil as they have dere­gis­te­red or bul­lied all of our mid­wives out of prac­tice except one.

You can get more info about Aus­tra­lia at the Mater­ni­ty Coa­li­tion web­site www.maternitycoalition.org.au inclu­ding our docu­ment pro­mo­ting mid­wi­fe­ry care for all, the Natio­nal Mater­ni­ty Action Plan. Check out the press releases as well. Some states are intro­du­cing mid­wi­fe­ry led care in hos­pi­tals and home­birth options. In Queens­land we have had a very posi­tive report on mater­ni­ty care with women-friendly recom­men­da­tions which will be imple­men­ted eventually.

Our hos­pi­tal sys­tem is somew­hat bet­ween UK and US, we have only mid­wives wor­king in labour wards (although there are moves to bring in non-midwife nurses which we are figh­ting) but they don’t have a lot of auto­no­my, have to go along with what the doc­tors say.

Dr Sarah J. Buckley
GP/family physician
www.sarahjbuckley.com
Author of Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothe­ring : The wis­dom and science of gentle choices in pre­gnan­cy, birth, and parenting