Home-birth midwives want pay rise

Press, 6 June 1986, Page 2

Home-birth midwives want pay rise

Home-birth midwives are tired of being paid half the wage of hospital midwives and have decided to press for more, according to a Christchurch Home Births’ Association spokeswoman, Ms Barbara Cornelius.

Delegates at the National Home Birth Conference in Palmerston North last week-end decided to employ an independent negotiating body to act on behalf of the country’s 25 home-birth (domiciliary) midwives.

Christchurch has two domiciliary midwives. At present the midwives are paid about $lBO for each birth, by contract with the Health Department. The cost covers about three antenatal visits, the actual birth, and up to 14 post-natal visits. A travel allowance is also paid.

The time involved with each home-birth meant that each midwife could deliver only up to 60 babies a year, said Ms Cornelius.

Domiciliary midwives

usually received from $9OOO to $ll,OOO a year, she said. Their hospital counterparts received about $23,000 a year with overtime rates on top of that.

Unless wages improved domiciliary midwives would probably disappear in New Zealand. That would leave women without the option of a safe, planned home-birth. Already many areas of New Zealand were without domiciliary midwives and even centres such as Christchurch had had problems recruiting midwives, said Ms Cornelius.

Domiciliary midwives had previously sent letters to Parliament and made individual requests for increased wages, but this was the first time they had acted as a group. The conference delegates also decided to set up a college of midwifery to be run by domiciliary midwives, as distinct from the New Zealand Nurses’ Association.