It was a bald-faced lie or plain ignorance on Pesce's part to cite that study - neither trait of which I like to see in a health professional. He kept saying 'planned homebirth' and the stats included more than just planned HB's! They also included high-risk women, high-risk women who just didn't make it to a planned hospy birth, etc. It was a skewed study. He only ever uses the one study and says others arent' relevant because they were conducted in other countries. What he's trying to say is that Australian women are somehow biologically so different from Dutch, NZ, and UK birthing women that the stats cannot possibly be be used to support HB in Oz. We are only systematically different - by using HIS preferred system, Oz women are at a distinct disadvantage! At the Senate Inquiry he tried to say he was for choice, just not HB choice...ummm...listen to yourself!
Anyway, I think the HB gone wrong was also a perfect illustration of an underground HB. THe couple would have been better off freebirthing and going with their feeling that it wasn't going right That would still have been the product of an unregulated system and not fair on the family. Yes, the baby may well have lived had they been at hospy...and had a MW who wasn't scared, who was more skilled than fearful and who had some professional cred to front up to the hospy with.
My DS was a FBC waterbirth with HypnoBirthing and he was born quite like Anna's. The effect of moving from home was on me, and I never want to get into a car during labour ever again if I don't need to
I am really pleasantly surprised at how well Ch 7 produced this piece, and it now is clear to me why we saw the Ch7 people there at the rally and next to no reporting on that night's news...they were making THIS!