Fed: Mums angry over fed govt homebirth midwife row

In the chilly pre-dawn moonshine of May 3, 2008, Felicity Gibbins went into labour at her Dulwich Hill home, in Sydney's southwest.

The night was still and the household calm as the family prepared for the arrival of their second child, son Haile.

Snuggled in her own bed, beside her husband Paul and toddler Maya, Felicity's contractions began.

A homebirth is such a beautiful and intimate experience, Felicity says.

"The power of the mind is really an amazing thing. My attitude towards the pain was that each contraction was going to bring me one step closer to seeing my baby," she says.

"I was really excited about meeting my baby. I'd already fallen in love with it. It was my little friend who I would talk to all the time."

Using visualisation, meditation and yoga techniques, she worked through the pain, surrounded by her loved ones.

"Maya was fine with the whole experience. She was just taking her cues from Paul and (midwife) Betty. They seemed to be calm, not worried about Mummy moaning and groaning," she says.

"We had talked a lot about having the baby and read a few children's homebirth books, so she was aware of what was going on.

"She gave me energy drinks and stroked my head just like her Daddy. She is a very empathetic little girl so it was lovely to have her around caring for me."

Maya helped Paul fill the homebirth pool with warm water and baby Haile arrived at 8.22am weighing 3.9 kilograms.

"I pulled him out and into my arms," Felicity says.

"It was delightful ... my eyes were closed and I can still feel him now, his wrinkly skin over his head, his arms and legs stretched out searching for his mummy like a little slippery frog," she says.

Coaching her through this birth, as she had with Maya's homebirth, was independent midwife, Betty Vella - a safe pair of hands with 25 years' experience.

But a federal government proposal could effectively criminalise midwife care for homebirths, jeopardising the health and safety of mothers.

Under the proposed new laws, debated in the House of Representatives this week, midwives must be insured in order to be registered.

But since 2001, private insurers stopped providing cover for homebirthing and the federal government has also refused to subsidise professional indemnity insurance for homebirth claims.

As a result, up to 200 independent midwives could be deregistered from July 2010. If they continue working they will risk fines of up to $30,000.

Felicity says if she does have a third child she could not imagine going through labour in the public setting of a hospital after two special experiences at home.

But, she said she would not have a homebirth without a midwife.

"I formed a really strong, loving relationship with my midwife Betty," she says.

"Every time I had a fear, I would talk to Betty about it ... by the time I had the birth of my first child I felt really confident.

"In the hospital you can't have one-on-one care with a midwife ... there might be one midwife for three or four women.

"Being told where I should birth my next baby is offensive ... it is not everyone's choice to have a homebirth but to limit anyone's choice of doing it safely with a professional midwife by legislation is disgraceful."

Betty Vella says she's worried about her professional future.

"If it does go ahead it will make it quite difficult ... if women are penalised large amounts of money for employing me, or I'm penalised for taking on clients, it would be a great discouragement," she said.

"I'm hopeful it won't get to that stage."

Betty splits her time between helping up to 18 homebirth mothers each year and working part time in a hospital maternity ward.

"You can be at work (at the hospital) and catch people's babies but you don't necessarily remember their names; with homebirths you remember everything about it because you have that opportunity to make that connection," she says.

"I do all the (monthly pre-birth health check) visits in the client's time and then give labour support and then post-natally you see them every day for a week or two ... so it's a huge amount of hours that goes into each client.

"You become very good friends. It's still professional but it's more than that."

She warns that if the government changes are adopted, the health of women and their babies could be at risk.

"There's certain potential for danger," she says.

"Women could go it alone."

More women would choose to give birth at home if there was government support, Betty says.

"If women didn't have the out-of-pocket payment and had access to Medicare assistance, more women would choose it," she says.

Betty says it's a myth that it's mostly hippies who choose to have homebirths.

"I have had clients who are doctors, lawyers, people in financial services, IT - all sorts of career paths," she says.

"It's become a mainstream option."

Betty says she fails to understand how the government can take away "a fundamental choice for women".

"Women have the opportunity if they have had birth trauma to choose to have a caesarean, which comes at a higher cost to (taxpayers) with higher risk factors, yet women who are low risk can't choose to homebirth which is deemed to be safe by world-wide reports."

However, the Australian Medical Association has previously spoken out against homebirthing, warning it is significantly more dangerous than giving birth in a hospital.

Felicity and Betty will join other mothers and midwives at a rally in Canberra on September 7 protesting against the government's proposed changes.

Rally organiser and Homebirths Australia secretary Justine Caines says she is disappointed by the attitudes of Health Minister Nicola Roxon and Minister for Women Tanya Plibersek.

"They're progressive Labor women doing this to us," she says.

"It's very worrying.

"It (will be) easier to have an abortion than a homebirth.

"We have support from the opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton and the Liberal Party ... many of our supporters are not going to have a homebirth but they want to have the choice."

She has argued her case before the Senate and says the Health Department told the same inquiry there was no reason why midwives could not continue practising unregistered.

"This sets a dangerous precedent ... and is not a good start for Rudd and his health reform agenda," she says.

She claims Roxon is trying to dismiss the wider impact of the changes by relying on inaccurate statistics from state health departments that do not include homebirths by lay midwives and traditional birth attendants.

Homebirth Australia estimates up to 2,000 women have home labours each year but in a statement released by her office on Monday, Roxon said of the 282,000 babies born in 2006, just 708 were home births.

"I recognise that a very small proportion of women would like to have homebirths and am currently investigating if there is some way that we can provide this as an option without making the proposed midwife indemnity insurance unaffordable," Roxon said.

The Senate committee examining the Health Legislation Amendment (Midwives and Nurse Practitioners) Bill 2009 is due to report on August 17.

Homebirth mothers and midwives will protest at Parliament House in Canberra on September 7 at 11.30am (AEST).