Re: [ozmidwifery] Article from the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Title: Re: [ozmidwifery] Article from the Daily Telegraph (UK) Brilliant. It ought to go far and wide. Let's send it on, whaddya reckon? Aviva - Original Message - From: Marilyn Kleidon To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, February 07, 2003 2:09 AM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Article from the Daily Telegraph (UK) Lieve: I think this is the article: I went to http://www.telehraph.co.uk/ , tried entering "homebirth" and then "home birth" and got nowhere. So I went to "health" and then "women" and it was on the menu. I can't get out of this paragraph format, sorry. There were a couple of intro sentences above the article below but there was also a photo which I didn't try to copy. The article starts after a couple of line spaces below: Deborah Abrahams gave birth to Flo at home. 'It was a totally different experience. It gave me a great feeling of strength' Had Deborah and her husband Michael Blass - both British theatre directors - been living in Britain, their chances of achieving a home birth for Flo would have been minimal. The proportion of home births in this country has plummeted from 36 per cent in 1958 to two per cent today. In Holland, about 32 per cent of babies are born at home. Nor is that the only difference in obstetric practice between the two countries: the caesarean rate has steadily climbed in Britain to 21.5 per cent, while in Holland, it is about 10 per cent. In Holland, an epidural is used in only six per cent of deliveries, compared with 24 per cent here. Post-natal care is vastly different, too. Every new Dutch mother is entitled to a kraamverzorgster, a maternity assistant who stays for up to eight hours a day for eight days to help with the baby. The cost of this service - about £1,000 - is paid by the state or by health insurance. The overall impression I gained from a recent whistle-stop tour of Amsterdam maternity services was that childbirth is much less medicalised. The Dutch system is based on a highly refined process of risk assessment carried out by the midwife on the client's past and present medical and obstetric history. It is the midwife who acts as gatekeeper, deciding - with reference to the bible that is the Dutch Obstetric Manual - who needs a hospital referral during pregnancy and childbirth. "It is integral to Dutch culture that pregnancy and birth are normal events that can take place at home, unless complications occur," says Beatrijs Smulders, a midwife who runs a busy group practice in Amsterdam. "We don't ask people where they want to give birth. In the end, nature decides for you and you don't have a choice. The safest place is where there will be the least intervention, because each intervention carries risks for mother and baby." The role of the midwife in Holland is very different from that of her British counterpart. Here, most midwives are hospital-based NHS employees. In Holland, they are independent, although many work in group practices. "We are seen as a separate profession with equal status to a GP or an obstetrician," says Sue Thompson, a British midwife who is working in Amsterdam. "Our judgment is respected." Dr Maria Pel, a gynaecologist at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, agrees. "The important thing is for professionals to respect their own limits," she says. "For example, I am not interested in doing a normal vaginal delivery and I will not do it as well as a midwife because I will probably perform an episiotomy [a cut to enlarge the vaginal opening] too early." Dutch midwives attend when their client in labour calls them. They check that all is well, give advice and aim to return when the woman is 8cm dilated, an approach that can seem shockingly relaxed to those who are not used to it. Trust between client and midwife is crucial. "There is no pressure on us to listen constantly to the baby's heartbeat, nor is there a need, since we are working with a select group of women whom we know," says Smulders. "The most important role for the midwife during the birth is to ensure that the woman is not disturbed, so that the physiology of labour can work as well as possible." Dutch women, unlike many of their British counterparts, do not expect to be given drugs to ease the pain of labour. Epidurals are used only in caesarean deliveries, and gas and air is unknown. "We know women can handle pain and that they need pain," says Smulders. "And they know that if the pain is abnormal, pethidine will be administered. But midwives cannot give pethidine, so a transfer to hospital will be necessary, which tends to discourage its use." About a third of women who plan home births are transferred to hospital in labour. Because Holland is a relatively small co
[ozmidwifery] Article from the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Good article about home births in this paper - see http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fhealth%2F2003%2F01%2F24% 2Fhpreg24.xml Debbie Slater Perth, WA
Re: [ozmidwifery] Article from the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Title: Re: [ozmidwifery] Article from the Daily Telegraph (UK) Could you please paste the article, I cant get acces. Thank you Lieve On 05-02-2003 14:14, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fhealth%2F2003%2F01%2F24%
Re: [ozmidwifery] Article from the Daily Telegraph (UK)
Title: Re: [ozmidwifery] Article from the Daily Telegraph (UK) Lieve: I think this is the article: I went to http://www.telehraph.co.uk/ , tried entering "homebirth" and then "home birth" and got nowhere. So I went to "health" and then "women" and it was on the menu. I can't get out of this paragraph format, sorry. There were a couple of intro sentences above the article below but there was also a photo which I didn't try to copy. The article starts after a couple of line spaces below: Deborah Abrahams gave birth to Flo at home. 'It was a totally different experience. It gave me a great feeling of strength' Had Deborah and her husband Michael Blass - both British theatre directors - been living in Britain, their chances of achieving a home birth for Flo would have been minimal. The proportion of home births in this country has plummeted from 36 per cent in 1958 to two per cent today. In Holland, about 32 per cent of babies are born at home. Nor is that the only difference in obstetric practice between the two countries: the caesarean rate has steadily climbed in Britain to 21.5 per cent, while in Holland, it is about 10 per cent. In Holland, an epidural is used in only six per cent of deliveries, compared with 24 per cent here. Post-natal care is vastly different, too. Every new Dutch mother is entitled to a kraamverzorgster, a maternity assistant who stays for up to eight hours a day for eight days to help with the baby. The cost of this service - about £1,000 - is paid by the state or by health insurance. The overall impression I gained from a recent whistle-stop tour of Amsterdam maternity services was that childbirth is much less medicalised. The Dutch system is based on a highly refined process of risk assessment carried out by the midwife on the client's past and present medical and obstetric history. It is the midwife who acts as gatekeeper, deciding - with reference to the bible that is the Dutch Obstetric Manual - who needs a hospital referral during pregnancy and childbirth. "It is integral to Dutch culture that pregnancy and birth are normal events that can take place at home, unless complications occur," says Beatrijs Smulders, a midwife who runs a busy group practice in Amsterdam. "We don't ask people where they want to give birth. In the end, nature decides for you and you don't have a choice. The safest place is where there will be the least intervention, because each intervention carries risks for mother and baby." The role of the midwife in Holland is very different from that of her British counterpart. Here, most midwives are hospital-based NHS employees. In Holland, they are independent, although many work in group practices. "We are seen as a separate profession with equal status to a GP or an obstetrician," says Sue Thompson, a British midwife who is working in Amsterdam. "Our judgment is respected." Dr Maria Pel, a gynaecologist at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam, agrees. "The important thing is for professionals to respect their own limits," she says. "For example, I am not interested in doing a normal vaginal delivery and I will not do it as well as a midwife because I will probably perform an episiotomy [a cut to enlarge the vaginal opening] too early." Dutch midwives attend when their client in labour calls them. They check that all is well, give advice and aim to return when the woman is 8cm dilated, an approach that can seem shockingly relaxed to those who are not used to it. Trust between client and midwife is crucial. "There is no pressure on us to listen constantly to the baby's heartbeat, nor is there a need, since we are working with a select group of women whom we know," says Smulders. "The most important role for the midwife during the birth is to ensure that the woman is not disturbed, so that the physiology of labour can work as well as possible." Dutch women, unlike many of their British counterparts, do not expect to be given drugs to ease the pain of labour. Epidurals are used only in caesarean deliveries, and gas and air is unknown. "We know women can handle pain and that they need pain," says Smulders. "And they know that if the pain is abnormal, pethidine will be administered. But midwives cannot give pethidine, so a transfer to hospital will be necessary, which tends to discourage its use." About a third of women who plan home births are transferred to hospital in labour. Because Holland is a relatively small country with good roads, if an ambulance is necessary, it will arrive swiftly and the journey to hospital will normally take no more than 15 minutes. British women are anxious that if complications occur during a home birth, they will not be able to reach a hospi
