Right now I realise I just need to tell it like it is!
I have birthed three babies. My first was a highly medicalised, 'augmented' birth in a Canadian hospital. My second was a text book, midwife assisted homebirth in Australia. My third, another midwife assisted homebirth, that ended in a transfer to hospital for post partum hemhorrhage. I am an experienced birther, and (I think), an intelligent woman who would never put myself or my babies in an unnecessarily risky situation.
Some of you will not know that as of 2010, midwife assisted homebirth will in effect be ILLEGAL in this country. Despite the pleadings of many women via the Maternity Services Review, despite the many studies, large overseas studies showing that homebirth is just as safe for mothers and babies, as is hospital birth, despite the fact that pregnancy and childbirth are normal physiological processes for most women when they are left alone to do as nature intended.
Of course, there are instances at home where it is deemed transfer to hospital is necessary for mother and/or child, and here is where a trusted independant midwife is so valuable to those women who employ one. Unfortunately, up until this point independant midwives have been unable to secure indemnity insurance - insurance that for obstetricians and other medical professionals has been subsidised by the government. Now the government have essentially proposed it be illegal for independant midwives to work without this insurance as they have done in the past.
So what does this mean? It means that a group of experienced birth professionals who assist those who want to birth their children at home are made redundant unless they 'go underground' or toe the line and join up with a hospital or government approved birthing facility. It means that a group of women who wish to birth at home now have to decide whether to submit to procedures and protocols of a hospital environment or go it alone at home. This is not a fair choice, infact for many of us - for all of us really...it is no choice at all.
I could go on for pages and pages about the pros and cons of hospital vs home but to me, that is merely a side issue. I have heard people say "I'm against homebirth" and go on to tell you how many babies would be dead had they been born at home. There are many whys and wherefores and misconceptions about safety that I don't want to get into here. What's the point? Safety is relative and babies die in hospital too. The thing is, my choice to homebirth doesn't affect YOU. But believe me when I say that if my right to homebirth is taken away then it is a loss for all of us.
If you are a woman of reproductive age, or even one who is not - you need to realise that no matter where you decide to give birth this does affect you. As women, and indeed humans we need to support one another when it comes to issues that affect our bodies.
If my right to homebirth gets taken away, your right to a cesarean, or an epidural, or indeed (although pigs may fly) a hospital birth could be next. It is so easy to say, "well that doesn't affect me". Imagine had that been the case the women's movement, or for the civil rights movement?
Not to mention there is so much spin around this issue that it's worth taking note that this is not really about 'safety' of homebirth at all, but in fact the all powerful medical lobbying groups who wish to keep the riches of the birth industry all to themselves.
Anyway there, I've said it. If you have any questions, or want to correct me on something fly at her. I do believe that this is a women's issue most definitely, if not a human rights one - and the sooner the general population understand that, the sooner we can hopefully gain the numbers to stop proposed legislation in it's tracks.
My body, my choice.
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