[Letters and emails, Sunday Age]
Midwives as well as mothers are facing an umprecedented attack on freedom and equity in maternity care. Nicola Roxon cannot be allowed to proceed with her plan to require, in law, a written collaborative (read supervision) arrangement between a private midwife and a doctor. Roxon's madness seems to be a special mix of listening to advice from those who have the most to win, while ignoring logic, good sense, mainstream professional advice, and the pleas of thousands of ordinary Australians.
In one way it's an extreme version of socialist health policy (the nanny state), for anyone who needs 'public' maternity care, while turning a blind eye to the absolute privilege (license to take what you want from the public purse) that has been extended to the obstetric profession for the provision of 'private' maternity care. The other provider of 'private' maternity care, the private midwife, is being bullied out of existence. The person taking responsibility for this 'achievement' is an obstetrician, who now heads the doctors' union, the Australian Medical Association.
Maternity issues don't usually get much press, but as you will see from the attached scan (click to enlarge), the Sunday Age has recognised Home Birth as THE BIG ISSUE - at least for today.
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