Petition to Allow Private Midwives to be Eligible for Professional Indemnity Insurance or to Be Exempt from Being Required to Enroll in PI

Please allow women to choose. Please keep the pressure off our hospital system

Supporting women at home frees up hospital beds, saving people and finances.

either give MWs insurance - or don't make it illegal to practice without it.

Home birth is a choice which should not be taken away from a woman. It is a profoundly beautiful experience and midwives work with the mum throughout to understand any risks involved.

This just should be. They need to be protected and homebirth is a mothers' choice!

A diservice I meant

It is a basic human right for a woman to choose where it is best for her to birth her baby and only she knows where that safest and best place is for her and her baby. Allowing private midwives to be eligible for professional indemnity insurance and exempt from enrolling in PI will support home birth midwives to keep doing the amazing work they do in the world. Home birth is not for everyone but it is a safe and wonderful option for those who are intuitively drawn to it. It would be a disgrace to women, babies and society if this option were not given the appropriate support it so rightly deserves.

It's an essential, basic human right to birth where and with whom women want!

I am in my final year as a student midwife. Being able to be there for women who chose a homebirth is my career goal. Please don't take this away from us or the women we are looking after.

For the love of God, stop regulating women's bodies and choices.

I had my daughter at home with a Mid-Wife in attendance - it was a sacred experience - Mid-Wifery is Ancient and a natural practice - I support Mid-wives who specialize in homebirthing

We need women to have options in birthing there babies!

It is inconceivable that in 2016 independently practising midwives cannot obtain professional indemnity insurance like any other health professional, & that in six years (or rather the FIFTEEN YEARS since HIH Insurance collapsed) the Australian Government has been unable to implement a solution!!! Get off your butts & solve this dilemna. Choice of care provider & place of birth is a birthing woman's right, not some fancy dispensible "extra". Read the international research on the safety of homebirth, & the negative outcomes of lack of continuity of pregnancy-birth care (one-on-one continuity of care through pregnancy & birth is the evidence-based gold standard of care) & place of birth choices, & feel the condemnation of your inaction. Compare our birthing system with our sister NZ, with the UK & Netherlands, & feel ashamed Australia. Our birthing mothers need & deserve the highest levels of respect & care, for birth outcomes affect not just the mother & immediate family, but our future generations & society as a whole in ways we're only just beginning to understand. Signed, a health professional & mother who has birthed in the hospital system, & has home-birthed.

Should be a government owned insurance company for people that can't get it elsewhere but are forced to. If the government wouldn't like to do it then remove the mandatory clause for PI. It's like saying you have to have a driver's licence but having no RMS. Anyway I don't even understand why they can't get insurance. Their job is not very risky compared to some others in the health industry.

Home births are amazing safe and beautiful for a low risk woman. Everyone should have the right to choose.

I'm a mother of 3 successfully home birthed water babies. Midwives provided me the opportunity to birth in what I considered a less stressful natural environment.

Private midwives are highly trained and experienced individuals who deserve to be able to apply their skills for parents wanting a safe and supported birth.

Support women to have a choice in how and where they want to birth. My homebirth was beautiful, safe and we'll supported by 2 highly experienced and confident midwives

Homebirth is natural and empowering for most and relieves the public system! Support Independent Midwives of Australia!! we deserve a choice!

My Homebirth was by far the best experience of my life. Every woman has the right to choose where her body wants to birth and where her baby wants to be born.