The outcomes of the Maternity Services Review mean a lot of things to a lot of people.
- The changes to the "Medicare for Midwives" bill means that Doctors have the power to veto the decisions of the mother and midwife involved in the womans care. Should a doctor wish, he/she can withdraw collaborative care arrangements leaving the midwife uninsured and working unlawfully.
- Under the "Medicare for Midwives" bill amendment, rural Australian midwives would have to make collaborative care arrangement every three months or so in some practices to continue working and supporting their clients.
- No woman in Australia will have the choice to birth outside of a hospital and receive professional maternity care. It is the right of every woman to have access to maternity care in birth regardless of birth space.
- It may not be your choice to birth at home but your sisters, friends and daughters deserve to be able to make that decision for themselves.
- The government has stated they want to create a 'collaborative care model' under this review yet are making homebirth illegal without making changes within the maternity system which doesn't leave much incentive for change.
- People wanting accessible homebirth were vocal in this review yet totally ignored in the outcome.
- The government makes no plans to reinstate Medical Indemnity Insurance for midwives regardless of the overwhelming evidence showing that they deserve their place as birth professionals.
- Women will still birth at home but without professional assistance which may see the death rate of mothers and babies climb.
- Births that happen at home would be less likely to be transfered at the first signs of distress for fear of reprecussion.
- Rural women of Australia will have no choice but to relocate or drive several hours to obtain professional midwifery care for their labours rather than having a local midwife come to them.
- As many of our midwives have been practicing in private practice for well over a decade and are skilled in 'normal birth', we stand the chance of loosing these skills altogether.
- We would be the only country in the developed world who makes homebirth illegal whilst countries such as the UK are setting targets to reach to increase homebirth numbers.
- Birth in hospital will incure higher intervention rates as more women are pushed through the system.
- Resources for the women that need the high intervention care may be less accessible due to the extra demand on hospitals to assign resources and staff for women that can, and would rather, safely birth at home.
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