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25.01.2022 https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1084539251967554&id=109952770705784 Birth trauma live panel part 2. Live now

25.01.2022 Recent collaborative letter from consumer organisations to the Australian College of Midwives. Without women and decent consumer engagement, the midwifery profession can't possibly be "with woman".

24.01.2022 Need to add more continuity of midwifery carer- for all women. We all know how restrictive BC and PFHB models are.

24.01.2022 Alecia will be on this panel shortly

24.01.2022 Giveaway! See details below (click original post to enter!!!)

23.01.2022 "Hands-off techniques delivery could reduce damage to the pelvic floor and improve the quality of life for women after delivery." Women with sanctioned female genital mutilation have poorer outcomes- is it really that surprising?!?! https://www.sciencedirect.com//artic/pii/S2667164620300075

21.01.2022 The sanctioned female genital mutilation that is occurring within the four walls of institutions that are meant to be providing care.... *data from 2018 AIHW maternity report. 1st time mothers + "low risk" status.

21.01.2022 Darumbal and Yiman man Trent White picked up a camera to help First Nations' clans preserve their cultures one photo at a time. Darumbal and Torres Strait Islander mother Kayleen Adidi, and her son Jundamarli, were photographed at Hedlow Creek in central Queensland.

19.01.2022 Shining a huge light on this We saw this brilliant #butnotmaternity campaign begin to take off last week so it's great to be back online to add our suppo...rt. And it's so so fitting for #birthtraumaawarenessweek2020. . . In the clear words of @birthblissacademy: "We support the rights of all women and pregnant people at all times. During the covid-19 pandemic, restrictions of partners attending scans and appointments, as well as the time allowed into labour wards for partners and additional support staff have now come into question. Whilst valid at the start of the pandemic, they are now unnecessary and adversely affecting the health and wellbeing of partners and their babies." We strongly agree. . . As we said back in April in our #thinktraumanow campaign, birth trauma rates had potential to sky-rocket because of the pandemic. Whilst we're comforted by lots of amazing stories of support, we know too many women and birthing people who have suffered. Their rights taken away much much too quickly. The decisions around restrictions are now up to individual trusts. Huge shout out the those listening to their women, birthing people, partners, MVPs and hardworking staff and making the changes needed! Please DM us if you have a story to share. . . . #BTAW2020 #lockedoutofbirth #protectmybirthbubble #birthrights #birthrightsduringcovid See more

19.01.2022 *** A Story on International Obstetric Violence Awareness Day 26 November*** In June last year our second daughter, Autumn was born by a natural waterbirth. Hoo...rahh! The cord to my placenta was severed which meant my placenta was still inside. They got me out of the tub, completely naked, laid me on the bed, put my legs in stirrups and said the doctor (Gyno) would have to come and "assess" me. Two midwives stood either side of me, holding down my legs. In walked a man I'd never met whilst i was naked and spread eagle on the bed. Obviously there was no concern for my dignity. The doctor came in, said he needed to "gently assess" and "gently try and remove it". How he intented on doing that, I had no idea. He never explained it which means there was no informed consent. Informed consent is a place of MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING. So the kind doctor stuck his whole hand inside my very sore vagina which was excruciatingly painful. I certainly wasnt expecting that. I screamed at him to stop for over 30 seconds. Saying stop once is suffice, quite frankly. I became so terrified that I took my leg out the stirrup and tried to kick him away from me. The midwives just put my leg back up on the stirrups and said nothing. They did not intervene. So once my placenta was out, I was a mess. Feeling terrified, vulnerable, assaulted and violated. I sobbed in my husband's arms. The midwives went about the duty. I told them i felt violated. I told the doctor he had violated me. But nothing was said. There was a tension in the air after that. The doctor left, the midwives wouldn't look at me. They knew their actions were not by the book but they're hoping I'll let it go. I get to my room and my husband is made to go home. My midwife comes in a couple of hours later and apologises for the doctor's actions - and doesn't bother to acknowledge her own. She said i can make a complaint and that his actions were a "form of rape". (She later denies saying this). Five days later, I decide to make the complaint. My midwife tells her manager to expect my call, but only bothers to tell her after I've said I'll make the complaint. If i had decided not to, or if i was mentally disabled, single etc, would someone had mentioned that things didnt quite go they way they should have that day? Or are they hoping I'll shut and let it go. It's less work for them, right? But no. I'm stubborn. I'm determined and I know my rights. I make that complaint. I attend an open disclosure meeting for with doctor, his manager and medical supervisor. His explanation of what happened was vague, he was flippant in his responses and it was MY explanation that was faulted. It certainly couldnt be his lack of informed consent that's the issue. I ask for an apology in writing. It was a total of 2 lines. This took two weeks to get to me. I take the matter further and contact HCSCC. They refer the matter to AHPRA who then do an investigation. 4 months later, they acknowledge my distress but say it was my understanding that was flawed. I have quoted legislation to them and asked for evidence in their investigation regarding what steps the doctor took to get my INFORMED CONSENT. They are yet to respond 2 months later. I have emailed again, called 4 times, still with no response. I talk to lawyers who say they cant sue because there's no evidence of damage. Damage being physical ailments from the doctors actions. But how does one prove what is damage in the vagina from giving birth, to that of someone's hand being forcefully shoved inside you? The lawyers say it might be a criminal matter. So i go to the police and report it. They say it's not a criminal matter because of lack of 'intention' to cause harm. So, the hospital, HCSCC, AHPRA, lawyers and police will not take this matter further. The only person who can is yourself. I will NOT stop until there is change, until this issue is recognized for what it is and until people start answering the hard questions. They can't stop us!

19.01.2022 Whilst we notice the professional bodies who have members working in the maternity system have shared information about the Elimination of Violence Against Women, not 1 has addressed the violence against women in the birth room. Why not clean up your own backyard first?!? This sanctioned abuse must end.

19.01.2022 There hasn't been mention of the national maternity plan since it was signed off. Time to get some action. Would appreciate you signing and sharing this campaign, created by fellow maternity consumers. https://maternalhealth.good.do/maternalh/MaternityAdvocacy/

18.01.2022 Tune in tomorrow, as we're part of this discussion panel.

17.01.2022 Canberra bound- lots of meetings in the next few days. Hope to report back to you all with some positive news. Rest assured, we have been quiet, but we are still plugging away at reforming this space.

17.01.2022 From the UK, but let's not pretend this doesn't happen in Australia.

16.01.2022 Most of you would remember the HUGE campaign to get rural birthing back in QLD in 2018. We certainly haven't forgotten, although governments are dragging their heels. LNP have committed to re-opening 2 rural birthing units. 40% closed during the 90s. We'd love to see a 5 year plan to reopen- Mossman, Bowen, Nambour, Cloncurry....plus Chinchilla and Theodore.

16.01.2022 Or they could accept women refusing the test all together.....

16.01.2022 https://facebook.com/events/s/birth-trauma-awareness-week-sp/241554850477350/?ti=as Almost 4000 going or interested in this event. Live in 12 minutes. Can't wait.

15.01.2022 Alecia, our Director has been busy collecting interviews from researchers, women and health professionals for her podcast- Birth, the forgotten feminist issue. ...If you know a woman preparing for birth, midwives, a current consumer or other birth professionals feel free to share, tag, or have a listen yourself. Episode 1- Justine Caines OAM Episode 2- Ellen O'Keefe, Maternal Health Matters Episode 3- Prof. Jenny Gamble, Transforming Maternity Care Episode 4- Dr Belinda Barnett Episode 5, Kristyn Begnell, Bunting for Birthrights Episode 6- Prof. Hannah Dahlen Here on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6bHPMCtZ7B3GhafyYotbL0

14.01.2022 Seeing lots of posts and discussions about renaming Birth Trauma Week, as it suggests birth is inherently traumatic and doesn't define what is happening to women. Should it be Obstetric Violence Awareness Week? Maternity System Abuse Awareness Week?

14.01.2022 Media callout Brisbane Metro Mum and Bub for a pic and short interview about new research re: cesareans.

14.01.2022 Last year, a review published in the British Medical Journal showed that universal antenatal screening for the group B strep bacteria may cause more harm than g...ood. The reviewers found that universal screening for group B strep "would have led to overtreatment of 138 583 (99.75%) women in labour." Given that the treatment is giving intravenous (by drip) antibiotics during labour, which have side effects and mean that movement and options are limited, this is an important finding. If you’d like to know more about group B strep and your options, take a look at www.sarawickham.com/gbse That page has details of my book on this topic which helps parents, professionals and others to understand the issues and the evidence relating to the screening and prophylactic measures offered in the hope of preventing early-onset group B strep (EOGBS) disease and it also contains a link to my information hub, where you can read about this study and many others. #midwife #midwifery #doula #birthdoula #pregnant #birth #childbirth #duein2020 #drsarawickham #positivebirth #childbirtheducation #childbirtheducator #whatsrightforme #gbs #gbsexplained #birthoptions #getthefacts #youdoyou See more

13.01.2022 A review of 41 research studies has shown that "suspected LGA" (or being told that your baby is bigger than average), is only weakly predictive of the risk of s...houlder dystocia and that routine ultrasound to check the size of a baby in the third trimester could do more harm than good. Researchers looked at these studies becuase there is a growing trend towards recommending induction of labour for a variety of reasons, even though there isn't always good evidence to support this. Induction also carries risks and side effects of its own, and many women who experience induction of labour are not happy with the experience. This is especially the case at the moment, when many are still being told that they cannot have partners with them until they are in established labour. With induction, it can take up to three days for labour to become established, especially in first-time mums. This review looked at whether identifying larger than average babies by ultrasound was an effective way of predicting problems at birth, notably shoulder dystocia. They found that, although universal third-trimester ultrasound screening will result in more women being told that their babies are larger-than-average, it will not have a clinically significant effect at predicting shoulder dystocia. The authors of the review, "recommend caution prior to introducing universal third-trimester screening for macrosomia, as it would increase the rates of intervention, with potential iatrogenic harm, without clear evidence that it would reduce neonatal morbidity. The full review can be seen at https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article It's important to weigh up ALL the pros and cons of induction of labour before deciding what is right for you and your baby. There's loads more info on induction and other birth-related decisions at www.sarawickham.com/iol #birtheducator #birth #birthdecisions #midwife #midwifery #studentmidwife #doula #childbirtheducation #childbirtheducator #informedconsent #informedchoice #whatsrightforme #positivebirth #positiveinduction #labor #labour #quotes #drsarawickham #evidenceinformedmidwifery #evidencebasedbirth See more

12.01.2022 Please join us! Zoom link and agenda to come. Interest sought for committee

12.01.2022 Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women. We call upon Women's Healthcare Australasia to retract their non-evidence based Perineal Tear Bundle. This bundle has normalised FGM, and 1 in 5 1st time birthing women are being cut.

11.01.2022 Update on the Perineal Tear Bundle "The WHA bundle is firmly established as routine care in many hospitals across Australia. The website spins the narrative of damaged women (with heart-wrenching personal stories of SPT) and the hero care providers who can use their special powers (interventions) to save these women. The webpage called Celebrating Success provides scant information about outcomes and raises more questions that answers: No methodology is provided so the reader... cannot determine if the findings are valid. WHA claim they are working on peer reviewed journal articles to present the full findings. However, there is no evidence of ethical approval for their ‘experiment’ and you cannot publish in any decent journal without ethics. Very limited findings (claims) are presented and there is no public access to the full report. The claims of reduced SPT are not placed into context, therefore are meaningless. For example, the claim of an 11% reduction of SPT for women having a spontaneous vaginal birth 11% of what? The rate of SPT for this group of women in Australia was 2.5% in 2015 (Wilson & Homer 2020). So, if the bundle reduced that rate by 11% it amounted to a 0.25% reduction ie. to a rate of 2.25%. Most importantly, there is no data shared about the episiotomy rates post bundle implementation. Why? They most certainly will have collected this data. Episiotomy is perineal damage and needs to be included in any evaluation of a bundle aimed at reducing perineal damage. I am unsure what exactly WHA are celebrating. Even if we accept their unsubstantiated statistics, the bundle has reduced the SPT by less than half a % while most likely significantly increasing the rates of episiotomy trauma. The bundle has significantly changed midwifery practice back towards routine intervention during birth and liberal cutting of women. I don’t see how that is any cause for celebration." https://midwifethinking.com//the-perineal-bundle-and-midw/

10.01.2022 It’s #BirthTraumaAwarenessWeek & we are going to focus on prevention of and support for this phenomena. Thank you @naomisawatzkyppdoula for the original ...post. Let’s be clear. A healthy baby is NOT all that matters. We hear this message regularly, but what does it mean? Well, maternity services globally often focus primarily on the safety and well-being of the baby. And they sometimes do this in a patronising way. Let’s keep repeating the message that women matter. Birthing people matter. We all matter, and physical and psychological safety is as important for the mother as well as her infant. As midwives, doulas, maternity support workers and obstetricians - what we do and how we do it, what we say and how we say it - can make a woman’s birth experience either transforming or harrowing. We have that potential impact. The images in this post demonstrate the fact that women are influenced by the words we use. Sometimes we don’t realise what we’re saying - let’s keep being mindful during each interaction. Tomorrow this account is being taken over by @mumologist. The wonderful Emma is a psychologist specialising in pregnancy and birth - so do look out for her post and come along to chat to her! #enough #languagematters #wordsmatter #ahealthybabyisnotallthatmatters #womenmatter #birthingpeoplematter

09.01.2022 Famous Mums and Bubs in the Cairns post!

08.01.2022 Media callout Who is pregnant and planning a homebirth? (And has previously homebirthed).

08.01.2022 The whole system is where the problem is. In this rather dope #podcast interview Dr Stuart James Fischbein discusses his incredible journey into becoming LA’...s ONLY homebirth Obstetrician offering choice to women they cannot access in normal care and how in a country that is leading in mechanical, managed and assisted childbirth, he practices good old fashioned sticking to the blueprint. @pbb_media @birthinginstincts #homebirth #obstetrics #midwifery #childbirth #pregnancy #postpartum #timesup #ENOUGH https://www.spreaker.com/show/pregnancy_birth_and_beyond

07.01.2022 Front page of The Sunday Mail re: exodus from private OB care. Money isn't the issue. You can't fix non-evidence based care by pouring more money into a sieve.... Unwarranted variances, over-intervention, no post-natal care.... Women are speaking with their feet.... Imagine if all the money poured into propping up private OBs was put into establishing bundled funding that was allocated to women, to then distribute to her carer of choice. If private OBs really wanted women to have choice, they'd be working collaboratively with private midwives......ie. for those women who need a surgeon, they could offer consultation and referral pathways from midwives (not controlling their scope of practice).....we'll wait... https://www.couriermail.com.au//caaa28c820fc2e7696af3fedcd

07.01.2022 Always was, always will be Aboriginal land

07.01.2022 Let's start talking about the effects of racism in healthcare. #racism #maternitycare #culturalsafety

06.01.2022 GC, QLD media call out Breastfeeding mumma for a photo for the paper. PM your number (pic will be today or tomorrow).

06.01.2022 Great productive meeting with Health Minister Greg Hunt, supported by Alecia's local MP, Llew O'Brien to talk Medicare for midwives, insurance and reducing preterm birth rate.

05.01.2022 Some critique of the perineal tear bundle in the UK. Which we now refer to the as sanctioned Female Genital Mutilation here. https://www.all4maternity.com/the-uk-oasi-care-bundle-the-/

04.01.2022 "Yes, men can hold patriarchal views. Women can too. In fact, all of who have lived in patriarchal societies operate within this knowledge system and can, sometimes unknowingly, contribute to recreating and reinforcing patriarchal values. I know I still do from time to time. One of the goals of feminism is to support us as individuals to explore how we see the world and to question our beliefs. This work is typically called decolonisation of the mind. I see evidence of patria...rchal knowledge systems often in my research in maternity care. I wrote recently about the hidden trauma in our perinatal data collection systems, drawing out the point that genital tract trauma to the uterus at caesarean section is common yet invisible, while trauma to the vagina and perineum are foregrounded. What does the patriarchy have to do with that? One of the things that the privileged group of people under the patriarchy are considered entitled to is the enjoyment of female bodies. Arney (1982) has explored the history of obstetrics by analysing obstetric texts. One of the issues he explored was the relatively recent (in the history of childbirth) addition of episiotomy (a surgical incision in the vagina, perineum and pelvic floor muscles) to the skill set of obstetricians, which became routinised in the early 20th century. One of the lines of argument that supported the routine use of episiotomy was that performing and repairing an episiotomy would, as prominent obstetrician De Lee claimed restore virginal conditions (cited in Arney, 1982, p 71). Arney pointed out that men’s sexual priorities where the focus. A properly completed repair was considered to be one that restored the vaginal anatomy to a state viewed as sexually desirable by the obstetrician performing the repair. This preferred state of women’s anatomy continues to have echoes in current practice in the form of what is known as the husband stitch. Women were not (and haven’t really ever been) consulted about whether episiotomy was something they wanted. When Shere Hite published the Hite report in 1976, it came as quite some surprise to many that having something wiggled about in a woman’s vagina was not the central focus of women’s sexual pleasure. While women’s voices have started to be considered in research about birth related pelvic floor trauma, the findings demonstrate that patriarchal views of women’s bodies, expressed by male sexual partners or health professionals, are a source of distress for women with pelvic floor trauma (Priddis et al., 2013)." https://birthsmalltalk.com/2020/09/17/its-the-patriarchy/ See more

03.01.2022 https://au.lifestyle.yahoo.com/mums-c-sections-information-

02.01.2022 https://facebook.com/events/s/birth-trauma-panel-discussion-/811416426362423/?ti=as Tomorrow. FB live.... Birth trauma part 2 panel discussion.

01.01.2022 https://www.abc.net.au//birth-trauma-rates-tippe/12649590

01.01.2022 Are you expecting a baby soon and would like to try to sleep your baby the Pepi-Pod way? Call one of Flinders University's Aboriginal researchers on 0466 229 149 or sign up via this link and they will contact you: https://qualtrics.flinders.edu.au/j/form/SV_8jJE4jFBo7JGYbr

01.01.2022 Media callout SE QLD Woman who was happy to be discharged from hospital or birth centre a few hours after birth.... Media would like to chat.

01.01.2022 Live discussion now