Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Doctors 'in denial' about safe home births

Australian doctors are "in denial"about safe home births, according to an article in the Australia and New Zealand Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology:
And in the absence of publicly funded homebirthing programs, women who cannot afford private midwives are increasingly opting for unassisted homebirths, says Lareen Newman, a researcher in the department of public health at Flinders in Adelaide... When obstetricians point out the real risks of this trend, women may believe they are ‘crying wolf’ because of their unfounded opposition to safe homebirths, she writes.

She calls on RANZCOG [the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology] to acknowledge the evidence for homebirths and support public homebirth programs in its revised statement expected next month.

Good luck with that.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Your readers may be interested to see this article: http://www.motherswhowork.co.uk/cms/2008/04/02/home-birth-transferrals-more-dangerous-says-study/ which details the perils facing mothers who choose a home birth but who then, for any number of reasons, are forced to transfer to hospital. The trend towards home births is placing many women at risk. www.maternityrants.blogspot.com