Berwick’s Roanna Gray and her daughter Evie rallied at Parliament House on 7 September in support of home births with private midwives.By Kelly Yates
A BERWICK couple let their voices be heard as they rallied at Parliament House in Canberra in support of home births with private midwives.
Roanna Gray and her husband Daniel backed the rally after Mrs Gray had a home birth with baby Evie last September.
More than 3000 people attended the rally on 7 September, with Mrs Gray saying there was a mixture of women, men, children and babies at the event.
The aim of the rally was to gain equity for homebirth.
“The main stage was set up and comedian Tracy Bartram was the MC,” Mrs Gray said.
“The weather was wet and raining so tents were set up and most people had their umbrellas in hand.”
Mrs Gray, 28, said the rally was an opportunity for her to mix with other home birth mothers.
According to a spokeswoman from Homebirth Australia, on 4 September Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced a two-year exemption for homebirth midwives to continue to practise without indemnity insurance.
The spokeswoman said this would prevent homebirth from becoming illegal, yet the exemption did nothing to bring women who chose homebirth on par with women who chose hospital-based care.
“Women who choose homebirth continue to be denied any funding or the important consumer protection of an insured maternity health professional,” she said.
“In the event of negligence, a woman who has chosen a homebirth has no recourse to claim for damage to either her or her child.”
Mrs Gray plans to keep pushing and putting pressure on the local MPs to get behind the midwives.
“I want to see the independent midwives being able to help out with home births and have no constrictions,” Mrs Gray said.
