Hi all, I received this letter pasted below today from Mr. Jonathan Holmes, Executive Producer, The 7.30 Report in reply to my letter below Re: Midwives lose their professional indemnity insurance. Yours in birth, Tina Pettigrew Birthworks Independent CBE and aspiring B.Mid Midwife. Convenor, Aust B. Mid Student Collective. " As we trust the flowers to open to new life - So we can trust birth" Harriette Hartigan. ------------------------------------------------------------------- 30 July 2001 Dear Ms. Pettigrew, Thank you for your e-mail dated July 10, 2001. I have noted your comments regarding midwifery. I do hope you saw our segment on this issue on July 19, 2001. I have passed your e-mail on to the reporter for his information. We do appreciate people taking the time to write and I hope you continue to find the program informative. Yours sincerely, Jonathan Holmes Executive Producer The 7.30 Report
Attention: Mr. Jonathan Holmes Executive Producer 7.30 report Dear Mr. Holmes, I write to you today with a heartfelt plea for your assistance in bringing to the attention of the Australian public, the current crisis facing midwifery in this country. Due to a decision by Guild Insurance, the collective insurer for Midwives in Private Practice (MIPP) here in Australia not to renew professional indemnity insurance for MIPP, MIPP are currently having to close their practices. In Canberra, one of the midwives effected by this decision, her policy has now run out and she has been forced to tell 12 of her pregnant clients that they must make alternative arrangements and cease practice. Another's policy runs out in September and another 80 or so midwives across Australia will face the same difficult decision as their policies run out during the year. This decision to withdraw insurance from MIPP is a huge lack of recognition and respect for midwifery as an autonomous profession, which has far reaching implications for ALL women and midwives - not just the MIPP and the homebirth community. The homebirth movement here in Australia is still considered a radical, questioning and an independent movement outside of medical control and its always been a thorn in the obstetric side and subject to a great deal of attention, scrutiny and anticompetitive behaviour. Historically we know that many of the improvements in maternity care have been born from the homebirth movement. So to dismiss this issue or to shrug it off as something that only affects homebirth midwives and their clients is a HUGE mistake. Homebirth needs to exist for the benefit of ALL, not just the few that choose it, because out of this movement we have another model by which to compare the obstetric model, and measures by which to demand greater accountability from medical men and their machines and evidence for continued improvements for mainstream maternity care. Once you recognise this it becomes apparent that the withdrawal of professional indemnity insurance from MIPP is just the tip of the iceberg and actually represents the largest assault on the autonomy of midwifery this country has seen and THIS THEN AFFECTS ALL MIDWIVES AND ALL WOMEN - NOT JUST THE HOMEBIRTH COMMUNITY. THIS IS A NATIONAL ISSUE. It means that women will no longer be able to choose to engage a midwife privately to provide care for their pregnancy and births unless they choose a practitioner who is uninsured (which is not in anyone's interest, midwife or consumer). Moreover, the decision by insurers denying/refusing to insure MIPP, is to effectively, slam the door shut on midwifery as an autonomous profession in this country, relegating midwifery to be forever controlled by the medical fraternity. This has ripple effects into EVERY other facet of midwifery practice. It will eventually effect EVERY MIDWIFE in her capacity to work as a midwife 'with woman' as it effectively undermines EVERY midwife's status and claim to autonomous practice as the health care professional that she is, irrespective of where she provides midwifery care. Further more, while the majority of midwives may work in hospitals and have their liability underwritten by state governments, many midwives also choose to have PI outside of this as well - independent of their employers interests! The World Health Organisation (WHO) in a statement on care in normal birth (WHO Geneva 1999) states that "the midwife appears to be the most appropriate and cost effective type of health care provider to be assigned to the care of normal pregnancy and normal birth, including risk assessment and the recognition of complications." This country has seen a plethora of government reports, State Ministerial reviews and Senant enquires into maternity services, which have all confirmed this statement by the WHO and which all called for further expansions of the midwifery profession's involvement in the provision of maternity care as lead care providers for the majority of pregnant and birthing women. The decision by Guild to withdraw professional indemnity insurance from MIPP effectively wipes out further development of midwifery models of care which further restricts women in their choice of birth place and caregiver. So to argue that this is an issue that just effects 80 midwives and the 1% of women who choose to birth at home in this country is just ridiculous and will surely then see the demise of midwifery as we know it in this country. Adjunct to this issue, powerful people and their institutions keep getting away with slandering midwives and their profession without calls to put up or shut up. Just recently in a report on this issue in the Sydney Morning Herald, (Sat July 7 2001) Mr David Brown, General Manager of Guild Insurance publicly stated that midwifery is "a highly litigious area", offering no evidence of proof for such statements. Mr. Brown should be made account for his words or suffer the consequences of defaming of the midwifery profession. AMA president Karen Phelps hits the Federal Health Minister Michael Woolridge with a threat of legal action after he questions her qualifications to practice medicine and its front page news in every newspaper and TV channel in this country, right down to their menu and dessert choices at their even more publicly viewed reconciliatory luncheon !!!! Mr Brown publicly defames the whole of the Australian midwifery profession and no one gives it a second thought !! This issue needs to be brought to the forefront of public awareness and be dealt with once and for all. We require your assistance and those of your team at the 7.30 report to do this. We need someone to listen and to cotton on to the great conspiracy that is denying Australian women and their families the right to choose for themselves how, where and with whom they birth their children. Yours in birth, Tina Pettigrew Birthworks Independent CBE and aspiring B.Mid Midwife. Convenor, Aust B. Mid Student Collective. " As we trust the flowers to open to new life - So we can trust birth" Harriette Hartigan. -------------------------------------------------------------------