Save Homebirth!

My friend Kym has been documenting what is going on in Australia right now regarding Birth Freedom on her Facebook Page.

Here is a link to an event happening on Monday: Homebirth rally outside Julia Gillard’s Werribee

In solidarity with our northern sisters (who will be rallying outside Kevin Rudds Brisbane office), please come and rally outside Deputy Prime Minster Julia Gillard’s Werribee office this coming Monday, from 10.30 am.

As a result of the mess that maternity reform has become and the unclear but seemingly very poor options for homebirthing women, Homebirth Australia, with the support of Maternity Coalition, are hosting a rally outside Julia Gillard’s electorate office in WERRIBEE.

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.

Homebirth: Our bodies Our babies Our Choice

Julia Gillard needs to be made to understand very clearly that there is a problem. We have tried writing submissions, protesting in Maribyrnong and Canberra, contacting the health minister Nicola Roxon by phone and email, but she is not listening. It is time we took the fight to Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard.

Julia Gillard’s electoral office
Shop 2, 36 Synnot Street
Werribee, VIC, 3030

Monday 9th November 2009 from 10:30am

Women, children, men, families, friends who support choice in birth, including homebirth with a private midwife.

Bring banners, drums and percussion instruments. Let’s make sure we are seen and heard!!

Bring a ‘calling card’ to drop off, letting our Deputy Prime Minister know that women want choice in childbirth and this includes the choice to hire a private midwife to birth at home (or in hospital) – insured and funded. 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 Julia Gillard about this important issue.

The rally was suggested by Homebirth Australia and is supported by Maternity Coalition.

Julia Gillard’s office is located an easy 4 minute walk from the Werribee train station.

Facebook Support Group: I Support Every Australian Womans Right To Choose Where She Gives Birth

Daily Telegraph Article: Health Minister Nicola Roxon must go

Roxon’s goal is to destroy the medical profession through a campaign of denigration and assault on the integrity of doctors. Her desire is to replace medical professionals with cheaper, less qualified nurses.

It’s two years since Kevin Rudd, then opposition leader, promised to take over the nation’s hospitals if the States didn’t “fix up’’ their problems. That election pledge is now clearly one of the Rudd government’s many broken promises.

The only sign of progress has been a National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission report recommending that Canberra take more control (and insert more levels of bureaucracy in the process).

The report has 292 pages and 123 recommendations, most of which reveal a profound ignorance of the key factor in health delivery – the doctor-patient relationship – and show a morbid obsession with management by administrators and bureaucrats.

As Professor David Penington, former leader of the Hawke government’s AIDS task force and senior fellow of the Grattan Institute, told me, basic issues – quality and safety of care, correct diagnosis and choice of treatment, all things that doctors are there to deliver – are constantly ignored by administrators and bureaucrats concerned only with numbers.

Roxon’s performance as a minister doesn’t rate. It would appear she has no regard for public accountability nor any respect for our parliamentary democracy.

Her sole negotiating tactic is to demonise her opponent de jour and refuse to respond to any legitimate criticism.

When the Rudd government slashed rebates for chemotherapy, Roxon blamed pharmacists; when it hacked into health insurance, she targeted wealthier people; when it launched its attack on alcopops, she tried to hang the distillers out to dry.

Her belief that more bureaucracy is the solution to health-industry problems flies in the face of the experience of the states.

A recent study of the decrepit NSW public health system showed that expenditure on administrators and their staff had soared to almost $3 billion, out of a $7 billion budget, yet quality of care had diminished.

Prime Minister Rudd appointed Roxon as his Health Minister, and he should be aware by now that she is a failure in this portfolio. She must be moved: the health of the nation is too precious to be left in her inept hands.

Rally For Choice
We want our midwives independent

The reason for the latest concerns about private midwifery being compromised are the moves to make one of the requirements for an eligible midwife to be working with a GP/Ob (not for, but with) to be able to support homebirth. What this means to me is that women and midwives will be at the whim of ‘homebirth friendly’ doctors as to whether or not they will be able to access a homebirth, on top of the other barriers which already exist – a midwife being available, midwife available in your area, costs of midwife, and challenges of accessing supportive medical care with testing and transfers.

Bring a ‘calling card’ to drop off, letting our Prime Minister know that women want choice in childbirth and this includes the choice to hire a private midwife to birth at home – insured and funded. 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 Kevin Rudd about this important issue.