Unregistered midwives and other health practitioners could face fines of $30,000 or jail for attending births under new laws proposed by the State Government.
Health Minister Jack Snelling is drafting legislation to introduce before the end of parliament this year and says the bill will “limit potential harm that could come from someone who may not have appropriate training and qualifications to provide these services”.
“The safety of mothers and babies is our number one priority and a way to achieve this is to restrict the provision of birthing practices to registered midwives and medical practitioners only,” Snelling said.
“By registering under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, the person has agreed to work within approved national standards of practice and has demonstrated they have the appropriate skills, knowledge and experience to make childbirth as safe as it can be.”
The bill follows recommendations from deputy Coroner Anthony Schapel after the death of three babies at separate home births between 2007 and 2011 attended by former midwife Lisa Barrett.
Schapel also recommended that people planning to have an “at risk” homebirth be reported to the Health Department and referred to a senior consultant obstetrician for advice.
Schapel had found that all three of the babies involved would have survived if they had been born in a hospital by caesarean-section.
Snelling said the law was “not about denying women a choice about where they give birth”.
“It is a way to guarantee that whether a woman chooses to deliver in a hospital or at home, they are provided with safe and appropriate care by a registered, qualified professional.”
However, changes to the national laws in 2009 restricted midwives ability to attend home births considered “at risk”.
These types of pregnancies include women wanting to have a vaginal birth after caesarean, babies in the breach position, twins and obesity.
Speaking to InDaily after the Coroner’s findings last year, Barrett said she believed women had the right to give birth where they chose.
“If there was an issue of you saying a woman would be safer in one particular venue or another and you say it is safer to be at a hospital but the woman says my own perception of that risk is different. Who then gets to have the final say? That is an issue of human rights.
“It is impossible to say that if a woman has a caesarean section her baby will definitely live because if that was the case a baby would never die from a C-section and a woman would never die from a C-section because that is not the case.”
