The peak body for midwives says some women are being refused a drug called Syntocinon, which prevents haemorrhaging after birth.
The college says it is aware of a cluster of cases in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, and accuses doctors of trying to make “political statements”.
DOCTORS, fearing they will be sued, are refusing to prescribe drugs or order tests for women who want to give birth at home, and this is forcing mothers to give birth in hospitals or putting lives at risk, midwives say.
One of the problems is that the planned home birth group includes women who planned homebirth at booking but then developed risk factors and had their babies in hospital. There are probably only two women whose babies died who started labour at home planning a homebirth and one of these was a twin pregnancy (high risk). The others had all transferred before the onset of labour. The authors admit they ‘could not differentiate all planned homebirths according to whether transfer to hospital had occurred before or during labour.’ So for low risk women who start labour at home the risk is very low - 1 death in 16 years.
MIDWIVES’ ability to work independently - promised by the federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon - would depend on endorsement by individual doctors under an amendment to proposed legislation that has infuriated women’s groups.
Birth advocacy groups will rally today at sites across the country, including the Brisbane headquarters of the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, and in Sydney outside the Surry Hills office of the Minister for the Status of Women, Tanya Plibersek, to protest at the amendment, made public last week, which reveals that to work in private practice midwives will first have to ”enter a collaborative arrangement … with one or more medical practitioners”.
Dr Barbara Vernon of the Australian College of Midwives talks about the proposed maternity care reforms and the impact they may have on homebirths.
Last week a New South Wales Coroner urged federal and state health ministers to take ‘great care’ in drafting legislation to reform Australia’s maternity services.
The fear is that the proposed changes will make home births illegal in Australia after July 1 next year. And if that happens, home birthing services will go ‘underground’.
Less than 6 weeks after the Federal Budget, Heath Minister Nicola Roxon has today introduced the first bills to legislate giving women access to Medicare funding for expert midwifery care.
“This is historic legislation for childbearing women and their families” said Dr Barbara Vernon, Executive Officer of the Australian College of Midwives. “The ACM commends Roxon for her leadership in taking evidence based steps to enhance women’s choices in maternity care.”
Australian College of Midwives press release 24 June 2009
Explanations from the Australian College of Midwives in response to the National Registration Scheme for Health Professionals released on 8 May 2009.