Homebirth and Midwifery - International News

Australia -
Justine Caines, secretary of Homebirth Australia, writes

"Although Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced a last-minute back-down on proposed changes that would effectively ban private homebirths from July 2010, the threat has merely been postponed"

in Banning Homebirth Just Doesn't Make Sense.

Claire Harvey writes in Birth Wars Rage in Your Delivery Room

"Of course, this doesn't happen in dental surgeries. Open hostility between clinicians would be madness, serving only to baffle patients and undermine the whole purpose of creating healthy smiles.

But this is exactly what happens in maternity care, every day, in birth centres, hospitals and homes. Hostility, suspicion, mistrust, abuse and vitriol abound in relationships between obstetricians and midwives, clinicians, academics and activists."

ABC news reports on more homebirth news in Australia, stating that:

"Women, men and children from all over Australia braved a rainy Canberra day to support women's rights to give birth at home".

Canada -
The CMAJ completes an early release of "Outcomes of planned home birth with registered midwife versus planned hospital birth with midwife or physician":

"Planned home birth attended by a registered midwife was associated with very low and comparable rates of perinatal death and reduced rates of obstetric interventions and other adverse perinatal outcomes compared with planned hospital birth attended by a midwife or physician."

United States -
ACNM and Contemporary Insurance Services, Inc. Unite To Provide Home Birth Practice Coverage for 11,000 CNMs and CMs in the U.S.

"Our members' priority is to provide safe, quality care for their clients. We support the right of women to choose a planned home birth, and we applaud Lexington's recent decision to include home birth practice among their coverage options for our members." - says ACNM President Melissa Avery, CNM, PhD, FACNM, FAAN.

Del Rio Herald in Texas reports on a Fire Department's 100 pass rate for a class of new recruits, including that their training involves 8 hours on a maternity floor 'assisting in a natural birth'. It would be nice if they were required to attend a home birth - because that will, most likely, be the place of any calls they receive.

And finally, since it is showing up on many blogs online, Birth By Numbers - "Eugene R. Declercq, PhD, Professor of Maternal and Child Health, Boston University School of Public Health, presents the sobering statistics of birth in the United States today." It is long but very informative and necessary.