Re: Midwifery Resolution

[Steve & Bronni McGrath]

i called a public meeting back in Sept/Oct in Healesville re PI Insurance and supporting midwives and one of the issues raised by the group of mostly consumer women with their children was the great difficulty we all felt in raising the issue of the great Oz birthing culture not being quite right and then having to deal with the fall out.  Most of us felt quite inadequate and a lot of us felt down right scared as we had some very angry responses.  So i hear your words Jo.  Linda a wonderful friend who has had some great community midwifery experience in Melbourne with non english speaking women from around the world, put it in perspective for us a bit when she reminded us that is our birthing culture and that in many corners of the world what happens to women and babies here is disgusting and unacceptable.  Thats really interesting when you consider the culture some of these women come from.   Any way our meetings have continued, being small but fertile.  We have named ourselves now - Birth In Community - supporting and reclaiming freedom in birth, keeping abreast of the issues, and this year we are going to really push at getting some numbers happening with guest speakers etc.  We figure it's hard but if we can provide a support for each other and anyone who needs it around this issue we'll keep talking about the hard stuff.