Had a busy week, running off to the mother of all rallies. I was lucky enough to have a few mins to talk at the Tent Embassy and I am grateful to Suzi and Fleur for the amazing beginning to to rally.
There was between 2 and 3 thousand people taking the walk from the Tent Embassy to Parliament house to being the rally.
You can see lots of great footage and a round up at Illithyia Inspired.
I have observed that it is more than a little disconcerting to find that 3000 people outside parliament house is not enough to make the news. There was a cat the size of a donkey or some such similar outrageous story but little about the women men and children who flew from all over Australia to be counted as one. I am wondering does the AMA control the media as well as everything else, or was it yet another unintentional mistake and oversight by the well meaning politicians? I’m sure it was all just a terrible mix up and bad advice.
This bring me to another point that has been bugging me. When did the over sight of midwives not being registered turn into you have to be regulated and work in a frame work?
We hear on the one hand that it was unintentional consequences that threatened to make midwives illegal. You’d think an exemption would rectify this mistake, but no. Now we can only get this if we once again jump through hoops and work to a frame work devised by the VIC health department.
Before the unintended change we were all getting along famously. Then was the mbs, pbs, insurance for independent midwives carrot. We fell for that, then they publish the review and the budget. We must be competent practitioners of course! Then we are told no independent midwives to do homebirth. THEN we are told it was unintended. Lastly when this all blows up we are told we can’t get mbs pbs or insurance for homebirth (the same births we have been attending for years without insurance anyway) but we have to work to a new frame work thought up by random officials before we can register. Oh and even tho the SA framework is crap it’s way to radical for the AMA to approve.
Here we are again at the begining of the circle. Why didn’t the Goverment just say, the AMA want you out.? There will be no getting around it although they may word it so that you are constantly confused by what is really happening. They will tell everyone that homebirth policies in your area are good and we will tighten them all to ensure good practice from the midwife (AKA ensure complience – taken from SA homebirth policy).
this is what I think
Edited to add.
English even worse than normal on a re read this morning. I wanted to write something before it was too late but as a busy midwife I had already attended a birth after arriving back from Canberra and was extremely tired. Don’t want to re word but did correct some spelling. Health department RSS feed must show that I must be uneducated and illiterate. OH WELL…
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It is far worse than any of us imagined and each new development sees medical control getting tighter and tighter. Authentic midwifery is being legislated out of existence. Oh, but that was an "unintended consequence". The carrot on a stick is a furphy. There IS no carrot; it's an illusion. Now it is all just damage control.
I'd like to know what is actually meant by 'framework'?
I think it means principles, and the principles of midwifery practice have been agreed upon and outlined in the ICM Definition of the midwife.
Great Blog Lisa! I agree whole heartedly. The morning of the Rally I watched an interview on ABC with Lis Wilkes and I was very dissapointed. Apparently, according to Lis, the rally was to obtain insurance for independant midwives to conduct homebirths? That is not what I was marching virtually for! I thought all of those WOMEN turned up to ensure they had choice around birth, not to demand insurance for midwives.
You're a classic Lisa! You go girl! Love the tongue.