I really do believe that we need to see a major mind shift before things will change with regard to birth in this country.

I think it's wonderful that the government is looking at this issue ( amazing what happens when we get a federal health minister who herself has recently had a baby....hurrah for political will!), but I think we have some work to do in terms of cultural and social factors as well.

Fifty years of medicalised birth in Australia has taught women that birth is unsafe, that it's doctor territory, that it's reckless and bordering on morally wrong to make choices to birth outside "the system". You only have to look at the number of women who are crawling over the top of eachother to secure obstetric care to see that.

Birth has become so medicalised and interfered with - resulting in more women having problematic births, and being "saved" from those births by what is often the cause of the problem in the first place. It truly is a vicious circle and one that will take a long time to break.

But I'm happy to do my bit