Nurses and Midwives Bill goes before Dáil Tues Jan 18th

Published: Monday, January 17, 2011

The Nurses and Midwives Bill goes before the Dáil this Tuesday, Jan 18th. Please support the Campaign to amend sections 24 and 40 in order to protect women's right to make informed decisions in maternity care and the autonomy of the profession of midwifery.

Please contact your local TDs, Senators and Health Spokespersons - AIMS Ireland and the Coalition of organisations working on this campaign have created the following documents to assist in this final push.

1.) Form Letter - (please see below)

2.) 14 Reasons to Amend sections 24 and 40 - (attached)

3.FACTFILE: Why sections 24 and 40 need to be amended - (attached)

Form Letter

Dear__________,

The Nurses and Midwives Bill must be amended before it becomes law. Mothers, midwives, birth groups, student midwives and academics are united in their support for these amendments (attached). Women in childbirth need a Bill that will, in effect:

(a) Give women greater access to midwives--the experts in normal birth--in a choice of settings, home, hospital or local birth centre and enable them to exercise their right to choice in childbirth.

(b) Keep midwives in midwifery and in Ireland by enabling them to practise in all areas of midwifery, not only in hospital settings, but also in the community, offering antenatal and/or postnatal care as well as home birth services, like their counterparts in other EU Member States.

The amendments we propose will ensure the development of midwifery through:

1. Empowering midwifery by treating it equally with other professions and legislating for its separate governance within the Board (see amendments to Section 24). Regulation, not subjugation, is what is required.

2. Meeting parents' needs by linking indemnity with registration, not statute (see amendment to Section 40). Public safety is ensured through competence assurance, viz., continuing professional development, peer review and audit, not mandating insurance that may be inaccessible. This effectively criminalises clinical decision-making by midwives and will leave vulnerable women and their babies without care.

The regulation of midwifery largely determines the structure of maternity care: this Bill will set both in stone for the next quarter of a century. Our amendments are critically important not only for the future of the profession but for the wellbeing of mothers and babies.

Please see further information attached to this letter outlining the importance of amendments to sections 24 and 40.

Yours etc,
_________________

Please take 5 minutes to send letters off to your local TDs.

See here a case in Hungary and more information.

Together, we can give midwives and women autonomy and choice!

Thank You,

Jene Kelly
AIMS Ireland

Coalition Organisations:

Home Birth Association of Ireland, The Community Midwives Association, Clare Birth Choice, Trinity Birth Project Group, INMO Midwives Section, National Birth Alliance, The Doula Association of Ireland and nearly 4000 petition signatories challenging the Bill in its current form.