The Mother of all Rallies

[deesalie]

Women from around Australia rallied on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra yesterday to protest the anti homebirth legislation due to be implemented in 2012. This was the largest feminist rally in the history of Australia. Some footage for you to enjoy...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNWbN6pHjjM

And so the fight continues....

[3monkeys]

As a homebirther and more so a woman who believes in her rights I am totally behind you all.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Absolutely. All women who give birth in hospital should have been at this rally as well, because IF homebirth is nuked in Australia, hospital birth will become very aggressively managed, as there would be nothing to keep maternity control freaks in check.

[3monkeys]

My Dh and I just watched the link and even he is sitting there saying its wrong and its taking away peoples rights.

MT, I totally agree. Take away a womans right to birth how she pleases and you essentially remove her right to make any medical descision regarding her family, because after all the Drs and the Government know best. Especially if you remove that right from the very start...............Makes me feel sick.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

It's a fight that has to be won.

[ema-adama]

I have a friend in Australia who is due to give birth soon and she mentioned this legislation. It sounds horrendous! She has a government sponsored midwife - who thinks she is fanatical as she won't go see the hospital she would be transferred to in the event of that being required. This is her 2nd birth. The first was also a home birth.

Anyway, I find that shocking. And very very scary in light of so much research showing again and again that home birth is as safe (from a current medical perspetive) for mother and child as a hospital birth. There could always be an increase in incidence of 'whooops, it happened so fast'

[3monkeys]

Thats whats going to happen. Woman who would have otherwise used an Independant Midwife will now freebirth. And while I dont disagree with that (freebirthing) I think that women should have a choice how and where they birth and not be forced into either hospital birthing or freebirthing. And I can only just imagine the treatment the "failed freebirther" would get on transfer to hospital.

I homebirthed my first 2 children and had my youngest in a birthing centre. Her birth was essentially the same as a homebirth without the "home". The centre I had her iin is a rural one in the middle of the whoops run independently by a group of midwifes. And again to have her there was entirely our choice. Homebirth was our first choice. For me freebirthing wasnt an option and niether was hospital birthing. I dont know what I would have done if I wasnt able to do what I did.......... It probably would have sent me into some sort of pre natal depression.