the Gov't istalking about giving women more choice but is also destroying independent midwifery

[kiskidee]

see here

please also click on the link near the top of the page to ask you MP to support the Early Day Motion to save independent midwifery.

how can they do this when they dont want to pay nhs mws either?
are we birthing alone from now on then?

Oh no Ladyoftheflowers, that would be dangerous.... they could always make it illegal, of course

arrghh just sent mine and it has bounced back despite adresses etc being correct, will try again.

The new move to increase choice for women sounds pretty positive. I'll wait and see how it turns out in practice, but isn't this what everyone's been talking about as being high on their priorities list (having the same midwife, having the choice for homebirth)? You can't win.

Well no, you can win - by actually making it happen, rather than just talking about it.
Nobody is disputing that they're great ideas, but they've been great ideas for years already.

yeah its great in theory Christina but i know my local health authority are not taking on more midwives despite there being a shortage, due to cost cutting

Give it a chance. If they'd continued to do nothing you'd have ranted about that. It's only been anounced for a day or two.

to be fair many of the potential returnees would be mws who've left to have their own children who are probably far more in number than those practising as independent mws.

I think the independent mw issue is only a v small part of the problem- after all it's a tiny minority of women who can afford and/or choose to use them. Most aren't relying on them at all. I successfully had a homebirth with an NHS mw and know others who have too so don't see independent mws as being essential for this at all, helpful if you can afford it, of course!

It is not only rich women who use IMs. Many IMs do pro bono work and take payments over many years. My IM had caught a baby in a caravan for a woman who had been refused a homebirth on the NHS in the same week that DS2 was born. Although their numbers are small, IMs do most of the research re homebirth, write the articles, talk on radio/TV etc etc and are the voice of midwifery in this country.

To have a homebirth on the NHS is great and lucky for those whose health authorities provide this service. For people like me, who had to fight for a homebirth, not be "allowed" and then had to "buy" it in the form of an IM, please do sign the petition and write to your MPs.

agree they provide a valuable service. Wasn't saying *necessarily to "rich" women ,but affordability is obviously an issue, most can't afford the several thousand pounds for their services.

I'm for getting women a decent homebirht on the NHS like I did. I only hope the gov is serious about this and decides to ringfence some £ for investment in relevant services.

This 'choice' agenda is bizarre. I've just given birth, and I'd rather they just focused on providing a SAFE level of care rather than offering me lots of 'choice'.

The C-section rates in my hospital were frightening. You don't have high levels of emergency c-sections unless something is going wrong in the standard of care.

I had actually hired an IM. The govt has got a lot to learn from how IMs operate, but they will never provide the level of funding required.

i agree brummie, congratulations, btw!
Must all be very fresh in your mind! Safety, quality of care far more important than choice. Choice would be great if the first 2 were already sorted. I must say though that my having a "choice" of homebirth also gave me safety & quality (clean home environment, mw there all the time etc)

(tks, RTTH! am knackered...!)

I hired an IM to have a homebirth for the same reasons. Unfortunately the baby had other plans