maternity review submission
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.