Rural Maternity Providers

I went to a meeting hosted by another primary health unit (birth center in USA terms). They are also experiencing a shortage of midwives due to recent health issues of their team. The meeting was health at Lumsden which has a beautiful birth room and postnatal stay rooms.
A midwife from the Winton Maternity Home was also in attendance. The rest of the meeting attendees were various staff and volunteers from the Health Boards or Trusts that keep these birth units in existence.

I was touched to see hard-working sheep farmers discussing the issues surrounding midwifery, keeping birth normal, etc., etc. Some people in NZ government would like to close these primary units and have all birthing women go to a secondary site for care.

This would be tragic for many of my patients. The Southland District Hospital in Invercargill, where our patients go for transfer, transport or consultation has the HIGHEST C/SECTION RATE in the ENTIRE COUNTRY of NEW ZEALAND. Somewhere between 30-40%!!!!! Many blame this rate on the foreign physicians whom they rely on to fill their staff shortage.

I am just a bandaid to the midwife shortage (or a plaster as they are known here) so it was hard for me to be relevant to some of the discussion. What my midwife heart knows, is the work of midwives in the trenches, is that by keeping birth normal we are changing the energy of the planet. Those of you who get it, will get what I mean. We must continue to guard the sanctity of normal birth for the well-being of mothers, babies and families. It would not be cost-effective to send all our patients to the secondary unit, in part because they would increase the morbidity and mortality of our patients. This is not what the NZ government needs. Frankly, I find the hospital to be just that...a hospital. They don't even try to seduce consumers into providing a "home-like" setting to birth in. Florescent lighting, blank sterile walls. Very UGLY.

The midwives who I met that work there are a dedicated bunch with much too much work placed on their shoulders. They are doing their best in difficult circumstances, much like hospital midwives the world-over.