Midwife restriction push women to freebirth
New restrictions for midwives are forcing more women to have a ‘free birth’ in their home rather than be treated in hospital, according to midwives.
Speaking at the Australian College of Midwives conference in Sydney, midwife Melanie Jackson said the new legislation, which requires privately registered midwives to secure professional indemnity insurance, means that fewer midwives are doing homebirths.
As a result more women are choosing to go through the birth unassisted, just so they can stay at home, she said.
And she said that although there is no specific data on free births, she estimates there are around 800 free births are going on across the country every year.
“A lot of women who are doing free births don’t want to have a free birth but that is their only choice,” she said.
“I think by restricting home birth midwives, the result has been that women do not want to go into hospital so there are more free births.”
Meanwhile, criminal charges are being considered against a former midwife who is now practising as an unregistered homebirth practitioner.
The South Australian Health Minister John Hill has asked the Director of Public Prosecutions to investigate whether charges can be laid against Lisa Barrett relating to deaths of two babies during home births.
