I've not picked up lots of the mails in the past few days but can see the replies. I've just logged on to the digest to try and catch up so forgive me if this has been covered already.
I understand that women should have the right to choose a homebirth and that the consensus is that homebirth as provided in Perth is the way to go. However as Mary said the restrictions are huge as are the policies protocols guidelines what ever you'd like to call them. And There are skilled midwives like Mary who could easily undertake briths with variation of normal but are restricted in doing so. The actual truth is most midwives working in the system wouldn't be comfortable with twin, breech, vbac at home. Midwives who carry that skill will always have to be employed separately, they are in Britain, Netherlands etc. I don't feel bad about charging for my skill. I give up family life, the women always come first. I travel miles I'm on call 24/7/ 7days a week. I don't take holiday's or sometimes even day's off if required. I constantly update, interface with others, provide free advice and counselling etc etc. I'm a little sad not to be in NSW :-) Who cares what the baby bonus is for. It has nothing to do with women employing me for my midwifery skill. I would be doing exactly the same thing if there were no baby bonus. Lisa Barrett
