Registered User
Unfortunately, these things have happened to BB women- procedures done without consent, drugs given without consent. And actually proceeding with a law suit is so incredibly difficult that it rarely happens.
A woman should always have the right to refuse medical treatment.
Registered User
BB women or not they STILL have the right to know what is being done and STILL have the option to say no.
It does happen that medics play god and don't consider the womans right of choice ... as I said in my quoted part of the post, I was referring to my particular hospital. They do not do things without consent unless a woman is unconcious or unable to make that call herself.
Registered User
And women everyday say no in hospitals in Australia and are then threatened, held down, assaulted, raped and maimed.
I am glad that you have not experienced things done to you without your consent. I would have had trouble believing that these things happen today in Australia if i had not experienced it myself. Other women have had favourable experiences at the hospital that i birthed my DD, mine was not.
Registered User
There is such a wide variety of experiences and options here. I went through the public system with DD 9 and a bit years ago and felt much more "pushed" into things during her birth - I was advised to have a pre-emptive epidural as I was being induced and was just told how the induction would progress rather than being encouraged to let each step take effect before moving on to the next etc.
I recently had my son in the private system and cannot fault my experience at all - my OB was fantastic and fully supportive the entire way of my desire to do things as naturally as possible, even when this didn't entirely go according to plan and I needed to be induced again and wound up with an assisted delivery - he explained *why* intervention was necessary and because we had built that relationship over the course of my pregnancy I felt I could trust him completely. I hadn't met my midwives prior to labour but they were all fantastic (I had about 8 over the course of 2 days) and treated me with the utmost respect and care. DH and I had the final say over everything that happened and needed to give consent to any procedures/drugs etc
BellyBelly Life Subscriber
In principle, women have the right to autonomy over their bodies and informed consent. In practice however, some 'carers' do not respect this. The law is on their side - they can always play the 'it was medically necessary' line and in truth, few parents question this treatment in any case. Not just doing things without informed consent, but telling mothers they 'have' to be induced/have VEs/cannulas/etc, etc - it's pretty common really.
You have to do lots of research in your options & care providers. The surest way to be sure, is to actually build a relationship with them - so continuity with a known carer. Even if you go private and get to know your OB, you probably won't have the option to get to know your midwife (even *if* you can do 'shared care', you may not be caseloaded to a particular midwife and will have to labour with whoever happens to be there at the time).
2013 BellyBelly RAK Recipient.
I think there's variation b/w hospitals, however, if you educate yourself (on which hospitals will support your wishes), and have a great support team (i.e, partner, a doula or a private midwife) in hospital - you probably stand the best chance of having the type of birth you want (of course, not counting any real emergency).
I went public with my first son, went overdue, was induced and ended up having a c/s. I tried for a VBAC (public again in Melb). I had to fight some of the Dr's who thought an 18 month gap wasn't long enough b/w kids to try VBAC. We had a doula with us second time around which was fantastic. She could advocate for my wishes when I couldn't talk and was a great support to both myself and my husband. I think the staff can sometimes pressure the partners into making decisions that you may not want.
They couldn't induce me and I went overdue. They broke my waters to see if I could get into labour and gave a strict timeframe (looking back, doomed to fail with the stress I was feeling). Another c/s.
Third time around, it's hard to find many public hospitals or private obs who support VBA2C. There are some, but I've had to do my research and I'm switching providers at 16 weeks to private. A great Dr who I'd met public also works private and I really trust her. Birthing centres which are more pro-active/calmbirth/no intervention, but won't take you on if you've had a caesar or are 'high risk' for other reasons. Some hospitals have birthing pools, however their policies differ on whether these are to be used for labour and/or birth and not sure if they're keen on VBAC'ers using them. I'm asking for cordless monitoring this time around to at least use the shower. Will have a birth plan with my wishes and will again ask that we be given time to consider any intervention suggested. They were pretty good about this with my previous two experiences.
Registered User
This is all great stuff. NaeNae, in many ways I'd be keen to birth back home in Australia if we had a family home there - as it is my family all live in studios or tiny two-bedders with flatmates - so we'd have to rent! And by god accommodation prices in Australia is the stuff of heart attacks.
If I had to birth in Australia it would likely have to be in the public system as we no longer have private health insurance.
Having said that, it sounds pretty darn good in the Aussie public system - a darn sight better than here where in the public system you get:
*Automatic AROM - literally close to 100% rate
*No mobility once in the birthing ward
*Automatic episiotomy - literally close to 100% rate
*Most likely forceps delivery
*In a birthing ward where you are separated from other birthing mums by curtains around your beds.
*The cost of a vaginal birth is about $70 total for the top tier of treatment and about $10 for the lowest tier. The cost of a c-section in the highest tier is about $300!
It isn't much better in the private system. Honestly. Every birthing mother has to have an obgyn and there are no true midwives. Active birthing is still something of the future. Mothers are told to lie on their backs and not move in case the EFM doesn't work. Some obgyns have 70% c-sect rates, some obgyns have 95% episiotomy and AROM rates. The rates and stories are horrific. So many women too have no idea that their birth wasn't best practice and believe that they're never able to birth vaginally. In the group I volunteer with, we are coming across many examples of birth trauma. Two weeks ago, I know of about 6 women who had unhappy/traumatic births and not necessarily because there were complications. One mum was told to hurry up or they'd need to induce as the obgyn had a dinner appointment that night!
I could go on and on and on and on...............
So mainly, I'm asking these questions as I really want to know how can things be better here. I feel that if we can train midwives here in TRUE midwifery that would be a start. If they would allow women to be active and mobile in labour, that would make a HUGE difference. Hopefully the group I volunteer with will get a forum with the obstetrics society here to put forward some suggestions for improvement. Diplomacy and 'saving face' will be necessary though!
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