Saturday, October 25, 2008

Maternity Care in NZ


The shocking state of maternity care provided to New Zealand mothers is beginning to be exposed at last.

The model of care where midwives, who enter directly into the profession, with no nursing background, are allowed to provide sole care to an expectant mother, without medical oversight, with no statutory requirements to report adverse outcomes, trained by a 'College' that is driven by an ideology that belongs in the middle-ages, has resulted in a doubling of the rate of birth-related maternal deaths. http://www.stuff.co.nz/4738834a11.html

This has been exposed in a letter sent to the members of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

The letter raised concerns about a "quarantined maternal mortality report which reportedly shows a doubling in maternal mortality since the introduction of midwife-led care".


Associate Health Minister Steve Chadwick, who is responsible for maternity issues, said a committee had been formed in 2005 to investigate maternal deaths and the deaths of babies around the time of labour.


It is understood that the report into maternal deaths had been with Health Minister David Cunliffe for some time.


This raise a whole lot of issues.


At the time of the National Women's scandal, the Minister of Health was Helen Clark. It has long been the view of some doctors who worked there at the time that the scandal had been engineered with the use of dodgy statistics and using current knowledge to retrospectively judge a treatment modality for a disease that was misunderstood at the time. The statistician allegedly was a friend of Peter Davis. The aim was apparently to remove the powerful men who led Women's Care in New Zealand.


The College of Midwives has in its mission statement made it clear that they want to de-medicalise childbirth. This flies in the face of the modern approach to medicine where 'evidence based' treatment modalities are used. The rate of childbirth related deaths have plummeted in the last 100 years or so precisely because of modern medical involvement, research into pregnancy related illnesses and modern medical, not only obstetric, practice and the high standards of training.


This has been replaced by midwives trained in a College dominated by people of the same sexual orientation as the Associate Health Minister and our own Dear Leader, people who have an intense dislike for males, people who railed against 'paternalism' in medicine and who have now replaced it with their own type of 'paternalism' where women are being shamed into having to go along with their ideology; midwives who do not know what they don't know, and midwives that have been protected by a government from being exposed for what they are.


The result of this experiment in maternal care has resulted in an increased number of mothers dying, an increase in the number of children dying - but even worse is the number of both women and children who have been damaged for life, the number of women who are feacally incontenant, the number of women who will not have enjoyable sex again, the number of children who have cerbral palsey or are 'not all quite there'.


That is the bigger scandal.

7 comments:

Gecko said...

Thanks for this MAWM! I was doing my obstetric training at NWH at the time of that scandal. Unfortunately, I was too young and too naive to realise what was going on, but I do have vivid memories of the midwives and their treatment of patients and their partners.
That memory is still with me, as is the contempt I hold for them. The contact I have with midwives and still do, on a professional level, leaves me feeling angry and contemptuous.

KG said...

This ought to be a massive public scandal, with the media crawling all over it.
The fact that they're not illustrates perfectly their laziness/incompetence/partisanship.
I've put up a teaser and a link to this at CR.

MathewK said...

Exactly, it ought to be a scandal, but like everything with the socialist scum, it never is.

Heavens above, i hope this excrement isn't headed for Australia anytime soon, we already have enough failure in the glorious socialized healthcare system thanks to the ever-growing bureaucratic scumbag base and the shrinking frontline base.

Anonymous said...

I was too young and too naive

Sooo... gecko you are just a young chick then and not the 'old' nurse you claim to be ;)- maybe just an old fashioned nurse. We are a little short of them at the moment.

Unknown said...

Mothers of babies born in New Zealand are eligible for free, essential antenatal and postnatal services. Wellington Hospital in Newtown is the main maternity unit in Wellington. It provides the highest level of tertiary specialist services. Women who are expecting no problems in their pregnancy and delivery may be booked into one of the other hospitals in the region. An expecting mother will have some freedom in choosing how her baby is to be born, and in what environment. However, this will also depend on her health, and any expected difficulties during the birth.
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Anonymous said...

John - I think you have missed the point.

Several things - the women who often have sudden life-threatening events are often those who are expected to have a problem free delivery.
- the midwives have established themselves as the 'gate-keepers' to maternity care, and they are brain-washing (even lying to) these women into not having any medical oversight.
- midwives without any nursing or medical training are failing to recognise the impact that an existing medical problem will have on the woman during pregnancy.
- midwives with minimal training get funded the same as a specialist obstetrician for a confinement.

Tania said...

This is the most ignorant post I have yet to read on maternity. You obviously have some warped bias and you really need to check out what you are saying is correct. You might try contacting MMPO in Christchurch to get some "real" statistics

"the midwives have established themselves as the 'gate-keepers' to maternity care, and they are brain-washing (even lying to) these women into not having any medical oversight." Why on earth would a Midwife not refer a women for obstetric care, there is no financial incentive, if thats what your alluding to as obstetric care comes under a totally different funding avenue.

midwives without any nursing or medical training are failing to recognise the impact that an existing medical problem will have on the woman during pregnancy.
- midwives with minimal training get funded the same as a specialist obstetrician for a confinement.
Last time I looked there were NO midwives practicing without proper training and qualifications,sorry mate, you just would not be able to practice in New Zealand without the appropriate training and qualifications;at least three years training. Most of the midwifery workforce has at least ten years experience. The only failing is your part of being unable to back up your ridiculous statements.
Your last stament is incorrect.... Midwives get paid for LMC - Midwifery care. Obstetricians are paid under a secondary care budget, unless of course they are the LMC - and then they are able to charge a fee for their services as well as claim under section 88. The woman will as a course recieve midwifery care whatever the circumstances, its not like the obstetrician is going to be doing the day to day care on the wards or help with breast feeding and mothercraft??