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March 26th, 2009:

Is Homebirth Right for me?

Mar 26th, 2009
by Melissa Maimann.
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For further information, contact Melissa Maimann at Essential Birth Consulting.

For most women, home birth is a safe and responsible decision. Homebirth is possible for women who:

Are having their first babies
Are having their second, third or subsequent babies
Are having a vaginal birth after caesarean (VBAC)
Have had a previous traumatic birth
Had a very fast birth last time
Prefer a more natural experience
Are healthy

Why choose homebirth?
Some women find that having their baby in the comfort of their home provides a supporting environment.

This helps to keep stress hormones low, and positive birth hormones high, making the birth easier and less painful.

Other women homebirth because they believe in their body’s ability to birth, wish to involve their partner and other children, or prefer to reduce the chance of intervention in their labour.

A number of different research studies have looked into the safety of homebirth – all reliable research has found that for healthy women, homebirth is a safe option.

Keeping Homebirth Safe
A common question I am asked is, “What if something goes wrong?” Private / independent midwives take several precautions to keep home birth safe. This includes things such as:

Screening women carefully so that only low-risk, healthy women birth at home
Careful monitoring during pregnancy and labour to ensure that any possible risks are detected early, allowing time for transfer to hospital or consultation with obstetric staff
Building a relationship with the woman that is based on mutual trust and respect. This is central to an effective relationship between woman and midwife.

Midwives who birth with women at home are educated and experienced to assess the wellbeing of mother and baby throughout pre-pregnancy, pregnancy, birth and the postnatal / neonatal period. Midwives use the ACMI Guidelines for Referral and Consultation to support clinical decision-making in consultation with the client. Of course, with a homebirth, you have the right to make your own informed decisions about your care and your decisions are respected.

The Cost of Homebirth
Some people believe that private / independent midwifery care is expensive. I have prepared the following table to explain how the services are broken down. Home birth services are very comprehensive, and home birth midwives spend many hours with women and their families, building a strong relationship during the pregnancy that carries through to the birth and beyond. Typical home birth services consume a whopping 86 hours of a midwife’s time, assuming 1 hour of travel to and from your home, 13 antenatal visits, 5 postnatal visits, and of course labour and birth attenance.

PLUS
On-call – 24 / 7 for 5 weeks
Phone and email consultations
Research
Attending related appointments with clients
Professional consultation with other professionals on the client’s behalf

As you can see, the service provided by a private / independent midwife is comprehensive and does not compare easily with other maternity services in terms of continuity of care, hours of contact, follow-up and availability. When you choose a home birth with an independent midwife, you are choosing gold standard service.

As you can understand, when midwives provide this level of service, it is impossible to book more than two or three clients each month. I could see women in a clinic setting for 30 minute appointments – that would eliminate travel time – but I know that you’re after a service that really meets your needs.

Some women ask me whether I will provide reduced services such as no postnatal care, one or two antenatal visits, a late booking, and so on, in order to reduce the cost. I prefer to provide a comprehensive service and the women who book with me see the value in this approach. A home birth is an investment in you and your baby, afterall. And you deserve the very best.

Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting.

The IVF revolution is money badly spent

Mar 26th, 2009
by Melissa Maimann.
No comments yet

For further information, contact Melissa Maimann at Essential Birth Consulting.

Link to article

Jill Singer

March 26, 2009

BABIES are priceless, precious beings who can melt the hardest of hearts.

But they don’t come cheaply, as any parent knows, even when they arrive on the scene with relatively little effort.

Sadly, about one in six couples find babies don’t come to them easily, or at least without medical assistance.

I have enormous sympathy for people experiencing infertility, but, even so, the time has surely come for us to question just how much the public purse can stretch to help finance people in their quest to either become parents for the first time, or add to their existing brood.

No other country is as generous as Australia when it comes to pouring taxpayer dollars into the lucrative baby-making industry … Medicare rebates cover the bulk of scheduled fees and the Medicare safety net kicks in to cover 80 per cent of out-of-pocket costs once a patient has spent just $1111.60 in any year (a mere $550 if you’re getting family tax benefits).

What’s more, patients can elect to have an unlimited number of fruitless IVF cycles subsidised … Not surprisingly, the axe is hanging over the funding scheme for IVF as the Federal Government examines ways of reining in the annual $300 million safety net.

Access Australia, the main lobby group is gloating about its success in flooding Canberra with an orchestrated email protest campaign. Its use of language is enlightening:

it refers to “consumers” rather than patients.

IVF clinics are also exhorting potential patients … to write protest letters to politicians and the media.

The IVF lobby wields enormous power and is used to winning, thanks to the emotional power of the issue. ….

In 1995, 1 per cent of babies born in Australia were the result of assisted reproductive technologies. In just a few years the figure jumped to 2 per cent and is now more than 3 per cent.

Let’s consider some of the consequences. What are we getting for our money … ?

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare figures reveal that in 2002, 27 per cent of these babies were born prematurely.

That means more than a quarter required expensive, taxpayer- subsidised neonatal care …

As recently as 2005, the AIHW was made aware that the perinatal death rate was 7.3 deaths per 1000 births in even the most responsible forms of IVF – where a single embryo was implanted …

And for those babies who do make it, the risks continue.

ICSI … involves injecting the flawed sperm of an infertile man directly into a woman’s egg. Medical evidence is mounting that sons conceived through ICSI inherit their father’s infertility.

The problems with ICSI have been long known, though … Belgian researchers canvassed studies proving the link between the procedure and congenital abnormalities in the children resulting from it.

All IVF carries risks for children … a systematic review … revealed a 30-40 per cent increase in birth defects when comparing IVF and ICSI babies with naturally conceived children.

The fact is that we are paying to create a faulty gene pool, turning Darwin’s theory about survival of the fittest on its head.

What other species would be so foolish as to encourage this form of un-natural selection?

- This is a fair question to ask, and it also begs the question if any of the common interventions we accept in the child bearing process are justified.

Melissa Maimann, Essential Birth Consulting.