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

Home birth all the way! All women should be given this choice !

Our first born was a home birth and we saw no reason to have him in a hospital ... we trusted our midwife and our own intuition.

Definitely the next step in home birthing for midwives to have exemption .

Home birthing is such a safe and beautiful option if you have a RM on board when it becomes difficult to have a RM at a home birth and you don't have a RM that is when it becomes unsafe! I don't see what problem the government has with home birthing it is an option in so many developed countries.....it seems so backward!

Yes please! Birth is a normal process of life and midwifes are qualified to do this job brilliantly.

Midwives must be allowed to have insurance. The hospital system is failing mothers and creating the need for private midwives.

Every woman has the right to labour and give birth safely at home, with the support of an insured midwife.

Please provide a permanent, reasonable solution to this issue now!

As a midwifery student who hopes to work in home births one day, this is very important to me

What a ridiculous government. Denying the rights of women to have support in their homes from a registered midwife who is willing to have Professional Indemnity to meet the requirements of a government.

It is imperative that midwives have access to PI in order to maximize women's choices when it comes to giving birth. Home birth is a choice open to many women world wide. The physiological and hormonal pathways involved in the natural (not medical) process of giving birth are facilitated and enhanced by women being in their home environment and surrounded by people they know and feel safe with. The responsibility of government and medical protocols is to allow women given appropriate guidance to make individual choices about how they personally want to experience the natural process of birth. When looking at WHO statistics of women's need for inventions or C-sections in births, these are significantly lower than what we are experiencing in western medical culture. Denying PI to midwives would further exacerbate these decrepancies increasing unnecessary medically caused side effects or complications. With increased understanding of the science of birth, this must be used to maximize women's choices and deter the grip of medical practitioners over this predominantly natural process. In a world that is striving for equality, midwives must be given access to PI to give women choices over their bodies and births.

Australia needs to look to evidence- based practice, and to successful models in other highly-successful countries. Women deserve to have the option to choose best-practice professional support.

A woman has the right to choose where, how and who is with her when she gives birth. Maybe if this happened birth wouldn't be so traumatic for some mothers and the rates of post partum depression would reduce

Women should not be forced into the hospital system to give birth. This often only exasserbates unnecessary intervention. Birth is influenced more by the psychological state of the woman than the medical equipment in this setting. If a woman feels safe and at ease, her labour is far more likely to be easier. Please allow midwives to attend homebirths without the hoops which they must currently jump through. Afterall, the woman does not make such decisions to birth at home lightly, nor without due research. To take this choice away from her is criminal and undermines the highest profession in life, that of a mother.

Nurses are trained to know if a problem is at hand.....They need insurance to cover home births.

I have private health insurance but this doesn't cover me for homebirths. However, I would rather spend thousands of dollars out of pocket to have a homebirth than to birth in hospital. Midwives should be allowed to keep their registration irrespective of insurance. So the exemption should remain in place if midwives cannot get insurance. Homebirthing women need to be supported by midwives regardless whether midwives have insurance or not.

respect , support for the choices of birthing mothers , is mandatory

All women should be able to have the support of a midwife. We need this for now and the future.

Women should have the right to choose where they give birth! And midwives should be able to attend these births to give professional help.

I had a wonderful home birth for my second child thanks to two beautiful caring midwifes - such a contrast to the horrific, invasive & traumatising hospital experience with my first child!