Come on women and men of Australia - we REALLY need you right now...

[~Aveta~]

Dragonfly - I had both my girls at CHHC. I lived in Nambucca Heads at the time, but couldn't go to Macksville.
I don't know about your experiences with the Coffs Obs, but I had the 3 that were around at the time & wasn't impressed with any of them.
But in saying that I had a much better experience there than in Dubbo - 2 hours away from where I am now.
In 2001/2 & 2004/5 I was never advised of any ante natal clinic in Coffs either. An Ob was the only choice. Which, yeah, cost a fortune. (One of the reasons I didn't see one with DD2.)

up until may this year there wasn't any such thing as an antenatal clinic in Coffs. when i was having the twins in 1988, there was two OB's, Garland and Ghosh, and two GP's who would attend a birth. I was passed from doctor to doctor until i moved back up here from Wollongong, and had Ghosh for the last few weeks of the pg, whereupon he went on holiday and left me int he hands of an inexperienced locum. needless to say i had a horribly intervened-upon birth that nearly resulted in the death of myself and my son!

Garland is still practicing, and still prefers to do c/s than let a mother birth. the other two OB's are much better, Harvey Ward (who also is the Sydney IVF outreach) and Marylin Clarke, who works for the Pregnancy Care Clinic (the antenatal at the hospital) as well as her private practice. both are too expensive for me.

i chose a VBAC homebirth with my youngest, with a hospital trained English midwife, and it was the best choice i could have made. having said that, it was always onthe cards that i would rupture or have complications, and 30k from hospital was a worry, but i trusted her and my body/instincts, and it went smoothly.

[~clover~]

Garland, Goldman (Goldfinger) & Brimsmeed.

They are the three I met.

I was under DR Goldman (with the lovely nn), but ended up in labour with DR Garland for DD1. If you read my birth story he did want to take me for a ceaser coz it was taking too long!! I had DD1 myself a bit over an hour later thanks to my MIL saying no!

Goldman wanted to induce me 2 days before I was due to have DD1.

Never gave Brimsmeed a chance. I booked under him, but just saw my GP right up to the end. He came in after the birth of DD2, decided I didn't need stitches & that was it!

[~Aveta~]

it's all new to me, lol, i never thought i'd have a chance to have another as my ex didn't want any more kids. they're 20 and 16 now! lucky for me, DF is ready, willing, and able

still, living in a country town means that now Baringa Hospital has no birthing unit, there really isn't a choice at all.

[kirsty_lee]

here is mine.. I hope it is ok...

Dear Mrs Bryant,

I write to you in regards to the current system, in which women today are giving birth. It has come to my attention, that I like many other women in this country, are unhappy with the level of care and the experiences they have undergone, in said system.

I had my first child coming up to 6 months ago, and at the time had minimal knowledge of what I was about to encounter or even what to expect. During my pregnancy I had heard a lot of different stories from different women and the treatment that they were receiving during their 9 months. It suddenly occurred to me that I was not receiving treatment that other women were that was seen as ?routine?. During my whole pregnancy, I had 1 appointment at the hospital, due to continual blunders with appointments.

When time came for me to actually give birth, there were still many things not explained to me. I was told due to meconium in my fluid that I was to be induced. I was extremely nervous about this prospect as this was also something that had no been explained to me. Once seeing my anxiety about the issue, instead of having the procedure properly explained to me I was made to feel ?silly? about being nervous as it was ?just a needle?. Now after giving birth and reading lots of different reports on the drug used I have come to realise that it wasn?t ?just a needle? and should have been taken more seriously and clarified to both myself and my partner. I was also not told until I was in labour that my blood group was A negative, and then had the dangers of what it meant if my daughter had of been a positive, explained to me and my partner. Quite distressing to be honest hearing about this considering the traumatic experience I was already having.

During my labour, I was not given the choice to be active and walk around, I was barely allowed to have a shower, even though I had previously broke my water and needed to shower desperately. As a result of practically being bed ridden, I was forced into an Emergency Caesarean . I feel if I had of had the opportunity to begin with an active labour I would of progressed further than 2 cm dialated and been able to give birth naturally. I honestly feel like I had that experience taken away from me, without a say from my part. That was MY birth not to mention again, my FIRST birth, in which I will never get back.

Something about the current situation needs to be done. Not only was my birthing experience traumatic but the afterwards experience was just as bad. I was given misleading information by midwifes on breastfeeding, which as a result ended my breastfeeding journey at 10 weeks, not to mention the fact that I was bullied by midwifes on a few different occasions which I had to write a report about.
Not only is Pre-natal care important, but what about the labour and birthing process as well as post-natal. Where was the support that was deserved? There needs to be more support and MORE education for the processes and procedures that are carried out within these hospitals. I feel that we are not in control of our own birthing experiences anymore, which should not be the case. We need information and education in our pre natal appointments, we need information and education in our labour and birthing experiences, we need information and education in our post natal care. But most of all, above anything we need rights and respect for the choices and decisions that we make about how we want to birth our children.

Yours Sincerely,

Kirsty Lee Forbes

[BellyBelly]

Great work everyone!!! Keep them coming in, this is our one big chance!!!!

[~clover~]

Dear Skye,

Thank you for your submission in response to the Maternity Services Review Discussion Paper, “Improving Maternity Services in Australia: A Discussion Paper from the Australian Government”.

Your submission, along with all other submissions and information, research and expertise assembled from other sources will be used by the Department of Health and Ageing in the development of a report to the Minister for Health and Ageing, the Hon Nicola Roxon, MP.

Thank you again for your contribution to this important process.

Yours sincerely



Rosemary Bryant
Chief Nurse and Midwifery Officer
Maternity Services Review
Policy Development Branch
Primary and Ambulatory Care Division
Department of Health and Ageing

My reply I got this morning. I'm glad coz I wasn't sure it went through.

[BellyBelly]

YAY!!! Well done everyone, keep them coming it closes at the end of the month... even if you can only spare 15 minutes, thats all we need, a vote of support for change...

[Cassius2]

will write tonight...need to keep this page though so i can find it later...thanks for the link guys. terrific as usual!

[Tobily]

The Maternity Coalition has published this information on their website if you need some background and help getting started

Maternity Coalition-Advocacy