headoverfeet
12-11-2010, 09:07
WOMEN can now - for the first time - access a Medicare rebate if they seek care from certain (eligible) self-employed midwives. However the woman appears to feature little in the implementation of these government maternity reforms.
Over the last 18 months the turf war has raged violently, particularly between private obstetricians - squealing about the global financial crisis combined with the capping of the Medicare safety net - and midwives providing homebirth care who only appear to come to political life when they have the threat of illegality hanging over them.
Women have been put to the side in a debate that has seen the Government struggle to get the first area of health reform sorted - not a minor area but that which has the greatest number of bed days attributed to it.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon was quoted early in the piece as saying she would "knock over maternity before moving on to mental health."
It may well be that mental health, where there is little conflict over the money, would have been an easier area.
Women have been the big losers in maternity care for many years. The promise of a maternity review at the 2007 election to put women first has been a farce. The 900 submissions were more than the whole of the Health and Hospital Reform consultation process. Over 400 of these called for access to homebirth, yet the report of the maternity service review and subsequent budget excluded homebirth.
Over many years the reform of health has done nothing to help women in birth.
The safety net has done nothing to increase the choices women have in pregnancy and birth care. The insurance crisis sent obstetricians into meltdown and the caesarean section rate up. Reports in some areas of NSW have indicated that at times vital cardiac surgery is delayed due to elective caesarean section lists. Now we see private midwives in a pot of water which is set on a fire, warming to the boil like frogs. This will further reduce the options for women and will drive up the rates of unattended homebirth.
The massive rates of depression and post traumatic stress disorder in birth should be enough to tell us the system is not working.
It isn't just the public system, it is the whole system. Women are still not getting what they want.
The consultation process has been interesting. Ask anyone sitting at the table for the Maternity Service Advisory Group how many childbearing women are sitting at the table. The fundamental mistake has been to put the needs of doctors first. The message is that safety equals doctors. There is absolutely no evidence that indicates that doctors are required to make birth safe.
There is strong evidence that no woman would knowingly put her baby at risk. Women need to be at the centre of the equation, and that is something that a female Health Minister should have thought of before she started the process to reform maternity care.
Justine Caines is a political activist for better maternity care
From here (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/women-are-the-losers-in-maternity-care-reform/story-e6frezz0-1225952246450).
Over the last 18 months the turf war has raged violently, particularly between private obstetricians - squealing about the global financial crisis combined with the capping of the Medicare safety net - and midwives providing homebirth care who only appear to come to political life when they have the threat of illegality hanging over them.
Women have been put to the side in a debate that has seen the Government struggle to get the first area of health reform sorted - not a minor area but that which has the greatest number of bed days attributed to it.
Health Minister Nicola Roxon was quoted early in the piece as saying she would "knock over maternity before moving on to mental health."
It may well be that mental health, where there is little conflict over the money, would have been an easier area.
Women have been the big losers in maternity care for many years. The promise of a maternity review at the 2007 election to put women first has been a farce. The 900 submissions were more than the whole of the Health and Hospital Reform consultation process. Over 400 of these called for access to homebirth, yet the report of the maternity service review and subsequent budget excluded homebirth.
Over many years the reform of health has done nothing to help women in birth.
The safety net has done nothing to increase the choices women have in pregnancy and birth care. The insurance crisis sent obstetricians into meltdown and the caesarean section rate up. Reports in some areas of NSW have indicated that at times vital cardiac surgery is delayed due to elective caesarean section lists. Now we see private midwives in a pot of water which is set on a fire, warming to the boil like frogs. This will further reduce the options for women and will drive up the rates of unattended homebirth.
The massive rates of depression and post traumatic stress disorder in birth should be enough to tell us the system is not working.
It isn't just the public system, it is the whole system. Women are still not getting what they want.
The consultation process has been interesting. Ask anyone sitting at the table for the Maternity Service Advisory Group how many childbearing women are sitting at the table. The fundamental mistake has been to put the needs of doctors first. The message is that safety equals doctors. There is absolutely no evidence that indicates that doctors are required to make birth safe.
There is strong evidence that no woman would knowingly put her baby at risk. Women need to be at the centre of the equation, and that is something that a female Health Minister should have thought of before she started the process to reform maternity care.
Justine Caines is a political activist for better maternity care
From here (http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/opinion/women-are-the-losers-in-maternity-care-reform/story-e6frezz0-1225952246450).