Bill increases midwives’ responsibilities

Press, 11 November 1989, Page 7

Bill increases midwives’ responsibilities

PA Wellington A midwife will be able to take sole responsibility for the care of a woman and baby during childbirth, under a bill introduced to Parliament on Thursday. Introducing the Nurses’ Amendment Bill, the Minister of Health, Ms Clark, said that at present only a medical practitioner was permitted to take responsibility for a birth but under the bill, a registered midwife could do that. She said that with the advent of medical technology, there had been a trend towards treating pregnancy and

labour as an illness. “This has resulted in an increasing amount of medical intervention in the management of normal pregnancy which has led to the erosion of the midwives’ role. “This has proved to be costly and in many cases inappropriate.” While the expertise of medical practitioners was necessary for highrisk, complicated and abnormal pregnancy or childbirth, the focus of midwives’ expertise was the low-risk, uncomplicated and normal pregnancy w and childbirth. Ms Clark said 85 per cent of births

in New Zealand were normal and did not require medical intervention as a matter of course. • The bill would give New Zealand women the choice to use the services of either a medical practitioner or a midwife. The Opposition health spokesman, Mr Don McKinnon, said lack of health funding had put pressure on the Government to establish low-cost maternity services. He said while the Opposition supported the two-clause bill, he was sorry it was not bigger. He asked whether midwives would

be able to prescribe drugs. Later Ms Clark said they would not. The use of drugs would indicate an abnormal situation in which case a midwife would call in a doctor or refer the woman to hospital. Ms Judy Keall (Lab., Glenfield) said medical practitioners had attempted to take over childbirth. An indication was that in 1982, 24 per cent of births were considered “abnormal” and medical intervention was used — 10 per cent being deliveries by Caesarian and 14 per cent by forceps. “It’s very sad when that interven-

tion occurs unnecessarily,” she said. The Opposition spokeswoman on women’s affairs, Ms O’Regan (Waipa), said for too long mothers had been left out of the birthing process. “Every woman who has gone through childbirth knows that while it might be painful, it is not an illness.” “I trust midwives to know when things are going wrong.” The bill was welcomed by the New Zealand College of Midwives. The bill has been referred to Parliament’s social services committee for further study.