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

[minnie]

I am writing to express both my happiness at the positive experience birthing my first child was, but also to say how disappointing it is that I would not be supported by the Government if a chose a home birth in the future.

I had my first child at the Mercy Family Birth Centre in Heidelberg, Victoria, 15 months ago. I had a very straight forward pregnancy and a 12 hour, straight forward (but by no means easy!!) labour. I had wonderful support from my partner who is a health professional and the midwives basically left us alone to get on with the job, aside from coming in to observe how things were going and check blood pressure etc. I found the care to be exactly what we wanted at the family birth centre- the midwives were there should we need them but did not intervene or try and take over at any point. It was a wonderful experience and I found the pre and post natal care to be fantastic. We went home less than 24 hours after our daughter was born and found the home visits frequent and thorough enough so that we did not feel abandoned by the health system just because we were feeling ready to go home so soon.

I will never forget the wonderful midwife, who was there when i delivered my daughter, saying before we left for home "we won't see you two for the next baby- you can do that on your own at home!".

I would dearly love to have a home birth next time and am so mystified as to why midwives are not medicare funded. It just seems so crazy that fit and healthy women with no hint of complications are not allowed to birth at home with a midwife- instead we must endure the car ride to hospital (usually with very intense contractions as we have stayed home as long as possible), that car ride and the arrival at hospital and into a strange room almost always slows labour and totally interrupts any rhythm you had coping with the contractions and then take up a hospital bed and other resources which would be better used by someone who actually needed it.

I urge you to seriously consider giving women such as myself the choice to homebirth with a midwife- not only so I can bring my next baby into the world the way I would like to but so I can free up resources for those that need them.

Thankyou for listening to my story and suggestions.

[Antheia]

Here's mine. How is it?

Dear Ms Bryant, I am writing to you in response to your request for submissions to the Maternity Services Review.

I had my first baby in a public hospital. She was born by assisted delivery with vacuum extraction because i had not been given proper information on how to birth properly. I was laying flat on my back and i was not pushing correctly. The vacuum then made her shoulder get stuck on the way out.

My main care provider was shared care with my GP and the midwives at the hospital. Each visit i saw a different midwife. I had to explain myself over and over again. It felt impersonal. I felt like a number. I did not receive any information about how to deal with the birth both physically and emotionally. I went into the birth knowing hardly anything. I was not even told to read books etc.

During the pregnancy i had a lack of support and felt like i had no choices. In the end i developed pre-eclampsia. Due to this, i was induced. I knew nothing about being induced. They didn't tell me anything and i just went with it thinking they knew more about my body than i did.

During the birth i experienced a lot of negitivity. I had only the support of my husband. And due to being only 18 years old i felt i was being treated like an outcast. I was told to do 'this and 'that'. Never was i asked what 'I' wanted. I was given Pethadine when i did not even ask for it. My baby was taken away from me straight after the birth to 'give us both a rest'.

After the birth i developed PND. I did not bond with my daughter. I felt like my body had failed and i was told so. I was told my body was too small to birth my baby. I tried to breastfeed but after 2 days of no support and no one showing me what to do i was told by a midwife to just give her a bottle of formula. Thinking she knew best, i did so. To this day I regret making that descion. I believe if i had been given the right support and the right information my experience would have been much better.

My subsequent child was born vaginally without any assistance. My care provider was a team of midwives who i only saw 2 during the entirity of my pregnancy.

During the pregnancy i experienced a lot of support. I was given choices and i felt in control. Even when my labour had to be helped along with syntocinon i still felt in control the whole time. At no point was the synto or the epidural i had pushed on me. I was left to discuss it all with my husband for a couple of hours before we made our descion.

After the birth i experienced even more support. I was shown how to properly breastfeed and i bonded with my son right away.

I am now pregnant with my third child and i am having a homebirth. I have had to hire a midwife that lives 2.5 hours away from me because there is no one closer to me. We are struggling to pay for it but i will do what i can to have the birth i want and deserve.

I believe our maternity system needs to provide better support for midwives. They need to have medicare provider numbers so that more women can choose to have a homebirth without any restictions. They need better support from all of the maternity medical profession.

We also need more birth centre that are not so hard to get into and more free-standing birth centres. We need better support for women who are planning a VBAC and better promotion of VBAC as an option. Women need choices and midwives need to be able to give them those choices.

Yours sincerely,
Tegan Archer

[Kitt3n]

I just got an email acknowledgement from Rosemary Bryant

Hopefully it is all taken on board!