Midwives and doctors push for a nationwide ban on freebirths

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Doctors and midwives are calling for a ban on unregulated birth workers from providing freebirths in Australia. The President of the Australian College of Midwives Zoe Bradfield says there is a risk to freebirths as there are no registered healthcare professionals present during childbirth.

Transcript

00:00Doctors and midwives are pushing to ban doulas and other unregulated birth workers from providing

00:07free births in Australia.

00:09Industry representatives claim there's been a rise in preventable harm and loss due to

00:14some people choosing to deliver their child without a registered healthcare practitioner.

00:19To discuss this we're joined by Zoe Bradfield, President of the Australian College of Midwives.

00:24Zoe, firstly, there's a bit of confusion about what free birth is and it is often confused

00:29with home birth.

00:30So can you just define the difference for us here now?

00:34Thank you Gemma.

00:35Home birth is when women birth at home with the care of a regulated and registered health

00:41professional.

00:43Free birth is when women birth at home or in another location without the presence of a

00:49health professional.

00:50Now experts, and that includes the Australian College of Midwives, have written to the federal

00:54government.

00:56What are you calling for and who is joining in on these calls?

00:59Sure.

01:00So the Australian College of Midwives were pleased to partner with RANSCOG, the Royal

01:02Australian New Zealand College of Obstitutions and Gynaecologists, to call for a harmonisation

01:08of legislation across Australia.

01:10Effectively, what we're asking for is for the legislation that occurs in South Australia

01:15and in part in Western Australia as well, to be the same across the whole country.

01:19And that legislation has a list of restricted birthing practices, which says that those particular

01:27birthing practices must only be performed by a regulated, registered health professional

01:33and or a student of those particular professions.

01:36So it's very clear about the particular skills that can only be performed by a health professional.

01:42Now, to what extent are women in Australia choosing this option of free birth?

01:47So the problem is we don't actually know.

01:51We don't actually have any solid data.

01:53It's, you know, by its very nature, it is hidden from the system.

01:58But what we are hearing, though, anecdotally, from leaders around the country, executives of

02:04health services and state leaders reporting to us an increase in the numbers of free birth.

02:10And often we're only finding out about these free births when things go wrong, when people

02:15present to a health service for care and maybe a baby has died or there are poor outcomes

02:21for mother and or baby.

02:23Birth does carry risk, and I know it must be difficult because it's hard to get the data

02:28there.

02:29But what do we know in the case of free birth in terms of that risk?

02:32So the risk of free birth, obviously, is that, you know, there is no one qualified to support

02:41you during your care.

02:43Midwives are expertly trained.

02:46We are, you know, internationally standard, trained as midwives and educated, skilled, capable,

02:53qualified professionals.

02:55And the good news is that home birth, that is birth that is attended by a midwife in Australia,

03:00is extraordinarily safe.

03:02It's as safe as a hospital birth for the women that we care for at home.

03:08So it's a really important feature that we have of the Australian health care and maternity

03:13system is that home birth with a midwife is actually safe in Australia.

03:18And it's important that we protect that.

03:21Again, this might be difficult to answer, but do we know if there are any groups that are

03:25more likely to choose this?

03:27I mean, in terms of age, background, beliefs, their past experience?

03:30Yeah, again, because the data isn't regularly available on this, it is hard to pick any

03:36one pocket.

03:37But what we can say is that those that want to birth at home, but that maybe can't afford

03:42home birth because home birth does require out-of-pocket fees, may be unnecessarily prevented

03:48from having and from accessing that skilled, qualified, capable midwife to support them

03:53to birth at home.

03:55We know that we have been asking for an MBS item to support women who want to actually

04:02birth at home.

04:02Finally, with this being based, these calls on the South Australia model to be national,

04:09where do doulas fit in in the South Australia model and what are you calling for nationally

04:14there?

04:15So doulas and birth workers play a really important role in providing emotional support and comfort

04:21to women in labour.

04:22And this is not about, you know, having any say against that.

04:27We recognise that they play a really important role.

04:31But what we need to do is to each ensure that we are working within our scope of practice

04:36and also working together, each fulfilling our area of expertise to ensure that we come

04:45around the woman and provide safe and high quality care for women and their families.

04:50Sorry, Bradfield, President of the Australian College of Midwives, thank you for speaking

04:54with us.

04:55Pleasure.

04:55Thank you, Gemma.

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended