Choose your midwife choose your birth campaign 2013

As mentioned in my previous post Independent midwives will be unable to work without professional indemnity insurance after October 2013 and there is no affordable insurance available to them. After this date Independent Midwives will not be able to remain on the midwifery register, and therefore will be unable to provide midwifery care legally. This may not be a problem for every woman, but a significant number of Independent Midwives and the women they care for will be affected. Nhs midwives will also be affected although many are unaware how. Worse still it signals a reduction in choices available to pregnant women which has far reaching consequences.

A wonderful student who is supporting the Choose your Midwife, Choose your Birth campaign created the document below, on what linking PII to registration really means. Please share with all Midwifery colleagues and women.

1. It will cost you MONEY.

Every time a new midwife finishes her training or an NHS midwife moves job, takes a break between jobs or goes onto maternity leave she will have to be either added, removed or amended on the NMC register. There are over 38,000 midwives on the register moving around every week. The NMC will have to administer this scheme. That’s the NMC that is “failing at every level” and has just increased its’ registration fees by 32%. So where will the money come from to fund this extra work? Exactly. YOU.

 2. It will take away your AUTONOMY.

If you have to be insured to be a midwife from October then it follows that you have to comply with any stipulations that the insurers make to be a midwife from October. So if the NHS insurance underwriters decide one day after a nasty lawsuit that homebirth/VBAC/Whatever is too risky for them they might say you can no longer do these things in practice. And you’ll have to obey, else you won’t be insured which means you’re breaking the law. Making a link between registration and insurance puts policy decisions in insurer’s hands, not midwives. Bye-bye autonomy. And talking of breaking the law… 

3. You may be PRACTISING ILLEGALLY without even thinking about it.

Shift running over but still caring for a woman? Stopped in the street to answer a question for a woman or friend? Want to care for your friend in labour who lives outside of your Trust area? Covering a shift for someone else in a different area? Supposed to be on annual leave but offered to cover? Better be checking the terms of your NHS insurance policy to make sure you’re covered, or you’ll be practising illegally. 

4. It will take away CHOICE from women.

Not everyone wants to birth within the NHS. That doesn’t mean the NHS is bad, it isn’t. But some women just don’t want to go into hospital or for whatever reason, they can’t get the birth they want on the NHS. Taking away more choices from women about ANYTHING (but especially about birth) is a bad thing and will lead to…

 5. It will HARM women and babies.

With no alternatives to NHS care, scared women may decide to go it alone. This could have truly devastating consequences for mothers and their babies. 

6. Your WORKLOAD will increase.

Women who would otherwise be cared for by independents may now turn to the NHS. This will further increase the NHS workload and birth rate at a time when resources are already stretched and the birth rate is off the chart. All of this further contributes to burned out midwives and unsafe practice. 

7. Midwifery will LOSE fundamental skills.

Vaginal breech birth, homebirth of twins, homebirth after caesarean section, routine physiological 3rd stage; these are a dying breed in some parts of the NHS. Independent midwifery keeps many of these skills alive in our communities, these are skills that we need to see as thriving and routine if we are to keep from being turned into obstetric nurses. 

8. It will change the perception and future of YOUR profession.

Insurance does NOT keep women safe. One-to-one care from a known skilled midwife keeps women safe. Forcing Independent Midwifery underground due to lack of insurance could bring your profession into disrepute and result in qualified midwives facing criminal charges for delivering care to women who would not otherwise be supported in their choices.

 9. Because our DAUGHTERS and GRANDDAUGHTERS deserve more.

They do. They deserve more than to have their maternity care dictated to them by insurance companies. Insurance does NOT keep women safe. One-to-one care from a known skilled midwife keeps women safe. THIS HAS TO BE STOPPED.

see the original document here: 9 reasons why PII and registration should not be linked

 

WAYS TO HELP INCLUDE:

Join the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Choose-your-Midwife-Choose-your-Birth/223503274456877 it doesnt take long and you’ll receive up to date information as it happens.

Email your MP now, find who your MP is here:  http://findyourmp.parliament.uk/

Sign the petition http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44382 this takes just seconds to do.

Respond to the government ‘consultation’ with your views http://consultations.dh.gov.uk/professional-standards/indemnity_for_regulated_healthcare_professionals This takes a bit longet but is very important. See my response to some of the consultation questions here. Please feel free to use any part of it in your answers.

Ask the Royal College of Midwives union to support us https://www.facebook.com/MidwivesRCM

March with us on the 25th March in London. It will be a peaceful protest to highlight our campaign. The more people attend the more the Government may take us seriously. More information here: https://www.facebook.com/events/337186596400907/

See what this type of care means to women;

here in this Independent article written by a woman who’s given birth with independent midwives twice.

and here on you tube where a woman discusses the importance independent midwifery made to her when her baby was born breech.

There is also a plea from a well respected obstetrician to leave Independent Midwives alone.

Please do whatever you can to ensure women retain choice and midwives are enable to support women in their choices. Please share as widely as possible. x