November 2023 Edition

Congratulations to Carla on the birth of her baby!

Join us at our first quarterly public meeting!

Private practising midwives excluded from providing intrapartum care outside hospitals

It has been identified the indemnity insurance policy for midwives contains an exclusion for the provision of intrapartum care outside hospital. This also affects MBS item 82116, which has been suspended until further notice.

This means all midwives not employed by public or private hospitals and when the birth does not occur at home (as defined by Section 284 of the National Law) are not covered by the exemption.

The insurance excludes everything after labour commences outside of hospital (except emergencies).

Private practising midwives will now be breaching their insurance and can be deregistered any time they care for a woman in labour outside of hospital if she does not birth at home, which may include home birth transfer, birthing on Country, midwives providing hospital support, midwives with admitting rights and midwives providing antenatal care who support labour over the phone or similar.

We urge everyone to contact the Health Minister, Mark Butler, on 0882410190 to rectify this distressing situation so that women can access continuity of care!

Finding a way forward for the birth plan and decision-making

A new study by MCA member Catherine Bell, along with Hannah Dahlen and Deborah Davis, has shown how a more structured approach focused on the various childbearing pathways could enable women to give birth with full awareness and engagement, which continues into early parenting. Their paper discusses how an approach that encourages awareness of support systems and resources and helps establish realistic expectations can increase the sense of control and understanding of medical interventions, allowing better navigation of the possible pathway of birth. You can find the study here.

Birth Trauma Inquiry well underway

The Inquiry is well underway with a hearing being held at Parliament House in Sydney on 9 October, which was attended by Health Minister Ryan Park for some of the time. During this session, MCA member Sharon Stoliar gave a moving account of her own experience of birth trauma, as well as extensive research on the systemic racism experienced by women birthing in NSW hospitals, particularly those of South Asian descent. The Committee was visibly moved by the evidence Sharon presented.

The next hearing will be held on 12 December in Wagga, which will again be open to the public. The Committee is then due to report its findings on 1 February.

Failure to progress or a physiological plateau? Researchers seek to shift the parameters around normal birth

With 'failure to progress' being one of the most common pathologies in labour and reasons for obstetric intervention, a team of midwifery researchers from around Australia has set out to study the phenomenon of pauses in labour and the role they play in normal birth.

'This study found that the conceptualisation of plateauing labour depends largely on health professionals’ philosophical assumptions around childbirth. While the Medical Dominant Paradigm frames plateaus as invariably pathological, the Holistic Midwifery Paradigm acknowledges plateaus as a common and valuable element of labour that serves a self-regulatory purpose and results in good birth outcomes for mother and baby.'

The researchers have termed these natural pauses 'physiological plateaus' to redefine the parameters around normal labour progress and support our understanding of physiological birth.

You can find the study here.

Consumer updates from around Australia

In ACT, Catherine Bell is continuing her work on the Safer Baby Bundle rollout in a tick-and-flick manner. Across the board in SNWLHD, the 'Every week counts' program invites major consumer engagement and is taking on board our input. She has also been invited to showcase an in-service in November covering consent and decision-making. She has been asked to provide comments on program-related materials for internal and external use, and these comments have been incorporated.

This month, Catherine will also represent MCA at a Homebirth Conference stall along with MCA member Nicole Wheeler. They will share Best Birth Finder bookmarks with attendees. They will both be selling their books, and Catherine will generously be donating a portion of sales to MCA.

Azure Rigney spoke at the inaugural Women’s Wellness Festival, a collaboration by Newlife Midwifery and Mums of May, on a panel about bodily autonomy. She also hung out with Homebirth Queensland Committee Member Amanda, the co-creator of Born at Home. Here’s a short trailer of the feature-length film, coming to cinemas near you in February.

MCA would also like to extend a big thank you to Associate Professor Yvette Miller, from the School of Public Health and Social Work at the Queensland University of Technology, for supporting our research initiatives for the midwifery workforce scope of practice review.

Have you discovered Best Birth Finder yet?

Have you ever thought how useful it would be to read reviews of your local birth service?

Or you thought about sending your feedback to your birth service but have not been able to get around to it? After having a baby, there's barely time to look after yourself, let alone work out how to send feedback to your birth service.

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• review your birth service (anonymously). You'll also receive a free draft feedback email, with relevant contacts, to send to your birth service - all in under 10 minutes!

Your reviews provide invaluable information for women coming up behind you who are looking for their best birth!

Check out Best Birth Finder today and make your experience count!