Australia's maternity system is a broken mess. Unlike the U.S we have a universal health care system, but within maternity that system is being rorted and private obstetric care is milking a huge amount of money from the public purse.
Obstetricians have raised their fees (and the public purse has footed the bill) by
269% since 2004.
Our c/s rate is higher than the US. Our national rate is 31%.
We have had a considerable increase in post natal depression.
Nationally less than 5% of Australian women can choose a midwife for their pregnancy, birth and postnatal care.
Less than 5% of Australian women can choose warm water as pain relief.
Over 50 % of rural maternity units have closed over the last 10 years. As a result women are forced to mandatarily evacuate from their homelands to birth in large urbanised maternity units. This means they are travelling hundreds of kilometres to have their babies and are often separated from their families and communities. Some women in rural areas are giving birth on the side of the road. The outcomes for Indigenous women are dire.
There is a cultural perception that mothering is not overly enjoyable and post natal support is essentially non existent.
Maternity Coalition has been Australia's national consumer organisation since 1989. Justine Caines was the National President for nearly 5 years.
She has now formed a political party for Australian women - What Women Want (Australia) Inc. to raise childbirth choices as a major issue and bring birth back home to remote rural Australia. For a new minor political party she is receiving great media coverage and interest. For more information go to
What Women Want Australia-About What Women Want
Special Advance Screening
in Support of What Women Want
Saturday 17th November 2007
Drink and Nibbles 2pm
Movie starts 3pm
Special commentary post movie by local birth activist, photographer and author Elaine Norling
Tickets are $25 each or 10 tickets for $200
To purchase tickets contact Sandy Blakesley on 4324 1749 or email
sandy@mother-nurture.com.au
Birth is a miracle, a rite of passage, a natural part of life. But birth is also big business.
In this candid and eye opening documentary, director Abby Epstein and producer Ricki Lake explore and question the way American women have babies. Shocking facts (to men and women alike) regarding the historical and current practices of the child birthing industry interweave with stories of couples who decide to give birth on their own terms.
Producer Ricki Lake, who gave birth to her second child in her bathtub, and director Abby Epstein (Until the Violence Stops), who became pregnant during filming, take a hard look at how birth culture in the United States is in crisis, and why the solution may be midwives.
Midwives already attend over 70 percent of births in Europe and Japan, but less than eight percent in the United States. Lake and Epstein follow a New York midwife as she practices her ancient tradition with modern tools and several couples who decide to give birth on their own terms. The film simultaneously traces the obstetrics profession's century- long campaign to bring childbirth into the hospital: from blind- folds, restraints and pelvic X rays to the disastrous histories of drugs like scopolamine, thalidomide and Cytotec and the introduction of the electronic foetal monitor, after which Caesareans went from four percent to 25 percent in a decade. As doctors become increasingly risk-averse, medical decisions are being made for all the wrong reasons and interfering with the crucial initial mother-child bond.
This impassioned personal critique of the medical-industrial complex is a plea for the rights of women and children in a system that long ago spiraled out of control.
