I'm out of the office until 16 August 1999. 

Please  contact Therese Gouel at 410-614-6635 or [log in to unmask] for assistance while I'm gone.

>>> midwifery-research 08/11/99 20:13 >>>

The flagship of  Australian midwifery continuity of care is sunk!
Dear colleagues

The decision THIS MORNING   to axe the Team Midwifery programme at John
Hunter is firstly tragic and secondly demonstrates a blatant disregard
for numerous State and National Maternity Service recommendations that
encourage the provision of continuity of care models.
ref:
Rowley, M, Hensley, M, Brinsmead, M, & Wlodarczyk, J. (1995). Continuity
of care by a midwife team versus routine care during pregnancy and
birth: a randomised trial. Med  J Aust  163(9), 289-293.

Press Release from the NSW Midwives Association

Team Midwifery Programme axed at John Hunter Hospital

All about dollars and not sense!!!



The NSW Midwives Association is extremely concerned over the proposed
abandoning of the Team Midwifery Programme at John Hunter Hospital. This
programme was established in 1991 when the hospital first opened. It is
comprised of a team of 5.6 midwives who care for around 280 women a
year.

The team provides continuous care for women and their families
antenatally and during labour. Postnatal debriefing and support is also
available up until six weeks after the birth. Thousands of women have
experienced the satisfaction of knowing their midwife during the
antenatal period and at their birth. This programme has been a
forerunner for over thirty such continuity of care programmes
established Nationally. John Hunter has gained both national and
international recognition for this innovative service through the
publication of research into the programme in the Australian Medical
Journal, 1995. The research showed this care led to lower rates of
intervention and greater satisfaction for women when compared to
mainstream care. The establishment of the Team Midwifery Consumer
Participation Group reinforces the commitment childbearing women have to
this model of care. To abandon a programme that has met the needs of so
many women so superbly would indeed be a retrograde step for
childbearing women and their families in this country.

Recommendations from: the Shearman Report 1989/90; the NHMRC Options for
Effective Care in Childbirth, 1996; the NSW Maternity Advisory
Committee, 1997; NHMRC Review of Services Offered by Midwives, 1998; and
the NSW Framework for Maternity Services (DRAFT), 1999, urge
implementation of more continuity of care programmes for women and
facilitation of many different models and options of maternity care. All
these reports have indicated that women are requesting flexible models
of care, continuity of care, shorter antenatal clinic waiting times, and
more consistent advice. The John Hunter Team Midwifery programme met
these needs for years.

The decision to abandon the Team Midwifery Programme at John Hunter is
simply about dollars and not sense. The Obstetrics and Gynaecology
Division has a budgetary shortfall and the 5.6 midwives that staff the
Team Midwifery Programme are the sacrificial lambs. It is far easier to
find and dispose of a complete model of care that would reduce the
Division*s financial shortfall than to examine and control the many
costly practices and procedures not based on evidence. Midwives will not
allow their services to be sacrificed when so much evidence supports
their care. It is childbearing women and their families that will be the
ultimate losers in this game of money and politics.


Letters have been sent to the following people from the NSW Midwives
Association expressing our concerns and asking for the matter to be
reconsidered  :

Dr Katherine McGrath
Chief Executive Officer
Hunter Area Health Service
Locked Bag 1
Hunter Region Mail Centre
Newcastle
AUSTRALIA

Ms Judith Meppem
Chief Nursing Officer
NSW Health Department
SYDNEY   NSW
AUSTRALIA

Manager Greater Newcastle Sector
Hunter Area Health Service
NEWCASTLE   NSW
AUSTRALIA

Mr Craig Knowles
Minister for Health, NSW
SYDNEY
AUSTRALIA

Ms Jillian Skinner
Shadow Minister for Health NSW
SYDNEY
AUSTRALIA

--
Sally Witten Tracy and Pat Brodie
Senior Research Midwives
AMAP
Australian Midwifery Action Project
University of Technology, Sydney
fax: 0295141678
email: [log in to unmask]
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