Dear Diane, after the ICM congress I went to Byron Bay which is not far from Lismore . To my dissapointment I discovered that Byron Bay Hospital have two lovely birth rooms but no-one uses it. Of course politics and lack of Obs given as the reason. But no reason really if you wish to birth women there, low risk etc and there was a Midwife who was really keen to see the place used again her name escapes me for the minute but I'm sure if you rang the place and ask for a midwife there can't be too many in there at the moment.  good luck and enjoy Marijke
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 4:28 PM
Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Northern Rivers

Hi Diane,
I'm doing a student clinical placement at Lismore at present in the Birthing Suite.
I live about an hour away and drive there and back each day - beats flying to Adelaide for weeks at a time.
Lismore is a typically underfunded teaching institution, doing it's best under the circumstances. There are about 1300 births per annum, with 4.5 birth rooms and 2 midwives on per shift.
So there is no true facility for woman centred care, and being a teaching hospital, it's not low intervention either. There is no specific place to separate low and high risk women or the care they receive ... the midwives do their best...

Mullumbimby is not a birth centre - it is not midwife run, but it does only take 'low risk' women. There is somewhere between 25-33% transfers out of Mullum to other institutions. There are 4 male GP's who provide care at Mullum, and women can only book in if under a GP care. There are only about 120 births per year, with midwives working between the birth rooms (3 of them) and the hospital.

We can only hope that there may be future case load serices at Lismore, but as I said, it's a tertiary teaching hospital and there are always lots of young doctors willing/needing to attend births...

Hope this helps. Feel free to email me off line if you want to ask more.

Sue
Hi Listers,
Just a question about birthing services in the Northern Rivers region of NSW. Hoping to buy a property in the hills behind Lismore in the next year or so, when my son finshes his HSC. Looking like I will still have to work about three shifts a week for financial security and also some self employment stuff like lactation services(I am IBCLC) and calmbirth, which i plan to train in next year.
I am aware that Mullumbimby has a great birth centre, but we may be living a good 60 mins away from there. I also hope to move into homebirthing in the future. Is anyone familiar with birthing services at Lismore? Is it woman centred, low intervention, midwife friendly care? I am currently a team midwife on the central coast and am hoping to continue working with low risk women.
Any info would be appreciated as my family and I are so looking forward to this downshift, we are currently so stressed with full time work and travelling long distances in opposite directions to work while our lonely kids wait at home!!
 
Thanks Di


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