Media Release
Demand for homebirth increases as Government abandons women and babies - Media Release
26 October 2011
Homebirth Awareness Week will be celebrated around Australia this week by thousands of women, midwives and their families. The common theme will be the serious concerns that many have for the future of safe homebirth in Australia.
While latest figures show homebirth increased by 14.9% from 2007-2008 in Australia, there are fears that homebirth will become unavailable to the majority of women due to the restrictive policies being put into place and lack of access to midwives. Many women leave the hospital system traumatised from their first birth experience and this is reflected in the rise in home births in the latest national data. Yet Federal Government reforms to the maternity care system in 2009, has meant many of those women are no longer able to access midwives, but many will still choose to birth at home.
“In the last two years, the impacts of the maternity reforms has lead to a deterioration in options for women, greater risk for women and babies and a move from quality primary care to expensive secondary care,” Homebirth Australia spokesperson Michelle Meares said.
Overly restrictive legislation has meant that the number of private midwives attending births in Australia has dropped from 200 midwives in 2009 to only 90 midwives in 2011. Some women are having to birth at home unattended, some are being forced into hospital births they do not want. Regional and rural areas have been significantly impacted.
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said two years ago that it ‘would not be a good outcome’ if homebirth was driven underground due to the reforms being implemented by the Government and that Australian Health Minsters’ would ensure that women can make an informed choice to have a midwife attended homebirth.
At the Australian Health Minsters’ Conference in September 2009, Minister Roxon stated ‘I have made clear that I was concerned that as an unintended consequence of the national registration and accreditation process, that home birthing might be driven underground, that that would not be a good outcome.’ and ‘We have however ensured that women can make the choice if they're properly informed to still have a midwife attend to a home birth.’
“Now it is 2011, and the number of private midwives nationwide has dropped by 65% and new regulations may now prevent those left from attending many births such as women who have previously had a caesarean. Australian women who make the safe legitimate choice to birth at home are asking – will I have to hide to give birth?” said Ms Meares.
Homebirth Australia calls on the Federal Government and all Australian Health Ministers to ensure that Australian women can continue to access the care of a midwife at home and will not be abandoned by their Government for their choice of maternity care.
Media Contact: Michelle Meares 0439 645 372
Homebirth Australia www.homebirthaustralia.org
Homebirth Statistics Source: Australia’s Mothers & Babies Report 2008 available from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare online here – http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=6442472399
Press Conference - Health Minister’s meeting, health and hospital reform, homebirths, swine flu, IVF -http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/tr-yr09-nr-nrsp040909.htm
Home Birth: An annotated guide to the literature
Download now [PDF]
This annotated bibliography provides citations and critical appraisal of original studies on home birth. Study selection was based on comprehensive searches of the following databases: EBSCO, PubMed, and Cochrane. This bibliography was published by the Division of Midwifery in the Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia in collaboration with the American College of Nurse-Midwives and the Midwives Alliance of North America.
Call for Abstracts Closes Soon!
28th Homebirth Australia Conference
28 – 29 July 2012
Hobart Tasmania
Submissions are now open for Presentations at the 28th Homebirth Australia Conference. Abstracts are welcome on any topic relevant to the conference themes. The deadline for abstract submission is 5pm Friday 28 October 2011.
Conference Themes - Birth Rites - Human Rights in Birth.
Download abstract submission guidelines
Submission from Homebirth Australia to ACM
Download Homebirth Australia's submission to the Australian College of Midwives re the Interim Homebirth Position Statement and Guidelines for Privately Practising Midwives. [PDF]
Key points are:
Contraindications for homebirth
The list of contraindications for homebirth ignores what we know, that many women will continue to choose to birth at home who fit into these risk profile categories. And with good reason, Vaginal Birth After Caesarean (VBAC) success rates for women choosing home as their place of birth in Australia are around 95% as compared to in hospital where success rates are as low as 6.7% The Position Statement must recognise this and explicitly respect a woman’s right to choose, and her midwife’s right to continue to provide care for her. A midwife cannot be placed in a position where she is forced by her own professional body to abandon the care of a woman if she and her family make their own well-informed decision to birth at home. These women will be left without a care-provider and that is completely unacceptable.
Mandatory Consultation with an Obstetrician
Mandatory obstetric consultations must be removed from the Interim Homebirth Position Statement and associated Guidelines.
To force a women into obstetric hospital based care against her will is a breach of the common law rights of a woman and established case law including St George’s Healthcare NHS Trust v S (1998) 44 BMLR 160 (CA) UK and Re MB (1997) 38 BMLR 175 (Court of Appeal) UK.
We refer you to the National Guidance on Collaborative Maternity Care commissioned by the Department of Health and Ageing and released in 2010 from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). In it’s discussion of collaboration this document states:
A woman decides who she involves in this decision-making process, be it a health professional, partner, doula, her extended family, friends or community, and should be free to consider their advice without being pressured, coerced, induced or forced into care that is not what she desires (McLean and Petersen 1996). Women have the right to decline care or advice if they choose, or to withdraw consent at any time. Therefore, if a woman declines care or advice based on the information provided, her choice must be respected (UNESCO 2005). Importantly, women should not be ‘abandoned’ because of their choice (FPA Health and Read 2006, Faunce 2008; NHMRC consultations 2009).
The Interim Homebirth Position Statement and associated Guidelines are in direct conflict with the recommendations in the National Guidance on Collaborative Maternity Care as they encourage midwives to abandon the care of a woman who makes their own choices and declines care/advice, and they enforce mandatory consultations with Obstetricians.
Legal Implications
Over the coming years, the impacts of the ACM Homebirth policy will become apparent if it is not modified to ensure private midwives can continue to provide care for all Australian women who make an informed choice to birth at home. The ACM Interim Homebirth policy is forcing midwives to do what is essentially illegal by insisting on treating women against their will. If the point of the ACM Guidelines is to improve safety, then in it’s current format it is going to be counter-productive. There will always be a core group of women who will continue to birth at home regardless of their designated ‘risk profile.’ The College is asking their members who are privately practising midwives to make impossible choices about whether to abandon a woman’s care or force medical treatment upon their clients. Compliance with the ACM Interim Homebirth Position Statement and associated Guidelines in their current format will result in midwives acting illegally as a direct result of ACM policy.
Australian Homebirth Consortium - Consensus Statement
In response to the ongoing threat to homebirth in Australia and the Australian College of Midwives (ACM) releasing the Interim Homebirth Position Statement and Guidelines for feedback, Homebirth Australia has consulted with stakeholder groups across the country. As a result, the Australian Homebirth Consortium (AHC) has been formed from interested stakeholder groups including consumers and midwives. The aim of the Australian Homebirth Consortium is to bring the groups working for homebirth together to share information and work together for the future of homebirth in Australia.
There is significant concern amongst many midwives and consumers as the ‘interim’ statement is already being used to regulate the care that women can receive and being cited in disciplinary proceedings for midwives. The ACM Interim Homebirth Position Statement has been endorsed by the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA) and the Nursing Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA), before feedback has been received from consumers and private midwives.
We the undersigned request:
• That the Australia College of Midwives immediately withdraw the current position statement on homebirth as it is currently negatively impacting on women and midwives, and formally consult widely with midwives, consumers, their representative groups and others affected by this regulation before reformulating this statement.
• That the Australia College of Midwives formulate a guideline whether part of the ACM Interim Homebirth Position Statement and associated Guidelines or separate, that clearly and unequivocally endorses and documents the process for a woman’s right to informed refusal and the midwife’s right to provide care for her in pregnancy, labour, birth and postpartum irrespective of the woman’s risk status and without regulatory or legal consequence for the midwife or the woman.
Download the consensus statement here. [PDF]
If you are a member of a homebirth group who is not currently part of the Australian Homebirth Consortium, but your group would like to join our regular teleconferences to share information and work together where possible to protect homebirth in Australia, please email homebirthaustralia@gmail.com with the details of your group and contact person.
All groups are welcome to join.
Individual Feedback to ACM on Homebirth Position Statement
We encourage all our members to send individual submissions to the Australian College of Midwives on the Interim Homebirth Position Statement. It is due by 23 September 2011. Email your feedback to info@midwives.org.au. Read the statement and guidelines on the ACM website here.
Join the Birth Rights are Human Rights campaign - click here and take action to protect homebirth in Australia
Tell Minister Roxon and your local elected representative in State and Federal Parliament that a woman's right to access a midwife at home must be protected. Take action today.
Call for Abstracts
28th Homebirth Australia Conference
28 – 29 July 2012
Hobart Tasmania
Submissions are now open for Presentations at the 28th Homebirth Australia Conference. Abstracts are welcome on any topic relevant to the conference themes. The deadline for abstract submission is 5pm Friday 28 October 2011.
Conference Themes - Birth Rites - Human Rights in Birth.
Download PDF for more details about how to submit your abstract.
Homebirth Australia Conference
Challenging the Boundaries 19-21 August 2011
- click here for full conference details.
The 2011 Homebirth Australia conference was held in Newcastle, NSW on 19-21 August.
Keynote Speakers - Robbie Davis-Floyd & Ina May Gaskin
Robbie Davis-Floyd - PhD, Senior Research Fellow, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Texas Austin, and Fellow of the Society for Applied Anthropology, is a medical anthropologist specializing in the anthropology of reproduction. An international speaker and researcher, author of over 80 articles and coeditor of ten collections. Her research on global trends and transformations in childbirth, obstetrics, and midwifery is ongoing. Robbie currently serves as Editor for the International MotherBaby Childbirth Initiative (www.imbci.org) and member of the Board of the International MotherBaby Childbirth. Robbie has appeared in many documentaries including the Business of Being Born and Orgasmic Birth. For more information on Robbie visit her website - www.davis-floyd.com
Ina May Gaskin - MA, CPM, is founder and director of the Farm Midwifery Center, located near Summertown, Tennessee. Founded in 1971, by 1996, the Farm Midwifery Center had handled more than 2600 births, with remarkably good outcomes. Ms. Gaskin herself has attended more than 1200 births. She is author of Spiritual Midwifery, now in its fourth edition. The Gaskin maneuver is the first obstetrical procedure to be named for a midwife. For more information on Ina May Gaskin visit her website - www.inamay.com
For everyone with a passion for homebirth; midwives, doulas, mothers, families, students.
If you are able to assist with promoting the conference by putting a poster, flyer or postcards up in your community, please contact Sonja MacGregor
Join the Facebook Group for the Conference here.
Sponsored by
Save HBAC in Australia
Urgent Call to Action
Women's rights to choose where and how they give birth are once again under threat
In Western Australia in late June, a private midwife attended a HBAC (Homebirth after Caesarean). Her case is currently under investigation. The information we have is that she operated within her scope of practice and followed the ACM guidelines completely and the woman birthed beautifully at home. However the hospital where she was booked into in case of the need to transfer, reported the midwife. She has since had restrictions placed on her registration. She was given only 36 hours to respond to Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). Women in her care, who are due to birth in the coming weeks are left without a midwife, and her livelihood has been taken away.
This sets an extremely serious, and worrying, precendent.
This is not an isolated incident. Read more here about how you can take action today to protect HBAC in Australia.
Feedback to Australian College of Midwives
27 May 2011
Homebirth Australia was asked to provide feedback to the Australian College of Midwives draft Homebirth Position Statement.
We have engaged with homebirth and maternity interest groups from across the country and our united position was that our organisations are unable to endorse the ACM draft document. Key stakeholders developed a homebirth position statement in October 2009, namely, Homebirth Australia, Maternity Coalition, Australian Private Midwives Association and the Australian College of Midwives.
As this document was developed together and drafted in a spirit of consensus we believe this document adequately reflects appropriate midwifery practice, based on the ICM definition and the rights and responsibilities of women who chose to give birth at home.
Our combined position is that the October 2009 document (along with contemporaneous flow-chart) remains the agreed position until all parties, through consensus, draft another document.
- Homebirth Australia
- Maternity Coalition
- Australian Private Midwives Association
- The Australian Society of Independent Midwives
- Midwives Australia
- Homebirth Access Sydney
- Dunedin Homebirth Association
- Blue Mountains Homebirth Group
- Hunter Home and Natural Birth Support
- Caesarean Awareness Recovery Education Support SA
- Homebirth Network of SA
- Midwives in Private Practice
- Nimbin Birth and Beyond
- Birth Choices South West WA Inc
Download the letter from the organisations above.
Download the flow chart agreed to in October 2009.
European Court of Human Rights - Win for Home Birth
Tuesday December 14 2010
A year ago a pregnant Hungarian woman, Anna Ternovsky, alleged that the Hungarian state had violated her right to the respect of her private life by threatening midwives with sanctions and thus effectively preventing her from choosing to give birth at home.
This month the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg handed down a judgment in which it holds that the Hungarian state has violated the "right to respect for private life" guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights. The court found that this right includes the "right to choose the circumstances of birth".
Read the full article here: Victory in Strasbourg for the cause of homebirth
The court's full judgment can be read here
Who Are We?
Homebirth Australia is the peak homebirth body. Our members are consumers, midwives and related health professionals committed to ensuring the survival of homebirth as a birth option for Australian women.
Homebirth Australia aims to:
- support the rights of homebirth parents to choose how, where and with whom they give birth.
- increase public awareness and acceptance of homebirth.
- provide communication and support to members of Homebirth Australia.
- provide information to parents planning homebirth.
- provide information, support and networking to service providers.
- convene an annual national conference.
