homebirth position statement

Members of MIPP who are also members of the Australian College of Midwives (ACM) will be aware that "ACM is working with both the NMBA and the Commonwealth to develop a contemporary homebirth position statement within the next three months."
(Australian Midwifery News, Autumn 2011 issue, page 3.)



MIPP is a collective of self-employed midwives in Victoria. We all attend women as primary maternity care providers for planned home births. Our members include active members and fellows of the Australian College of Midwives, and members of other professional organisations.

In developing a Position Statement on Homebirth, we draw the attention of ACM to the summary of the APMA POSITION STATEMENT on PLANNED HOME BIRTHS WITH A MIDWIFE
[http://australianprivatemidwivesassociation.blogspot.com/]
1. We support home birth with a midwife in attendance for women who have uncomplicated labours.
2. We support and adopt the International Confederation of Midwives’ (ICM) Definition of the Midwife (2005), which is foundational to all midwifery practice, including homebirth.
3. We support the right of every woman to access a midwife as the primary maternity caregiver who works in partnership with the woman throughout the episode of care, who is able to be the responsible professional in attendance at the birth either at home or hospital, and who is able to make appropriate referral and transfer of care when required.
4. We support the right of a midwife to practise privately in a fee-for-service or funded relationship with the client, or to take up employment.
5. We support only those regulatory restrictions that are able to pass the ‘public interest’ test: “How does this promote health and wellbeing in the mother and baby?”
6. We support an expectation of equity, including equal pay for equal work throughout a midwife’s scope of practice. Midwives who provide primary maternity care are entitled to the same public funding, the same opportunity to charge a fee-for-service, the same access to hospital referral, and publicly supported indemnity insurance, as medical practitioners providing the same maternity services.
7. We support processes by which midwives are able to gain experience and mentoring in order to commence and demonstrate competence in homebirth practice.
8. We support seamless and reliable processes by which midwives are able to make hospital bookings for women planning homebirth, and arrange transfer to the hospital in a timely way when needed.

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