“Quality and Safety” and other lies we’re being told

The “Quality and Safety Framework” has been released. For something supposedly produced after hours of consultation and furrowed brows crouched over our hot submissions, it looks remarkably like all the other dross produced by the government and fellow travellers around this issue. Screw women, screw midwives, tell everyone a lot of bullshit, ahhh job well done.

It gives me the angry in the pit of my stomach feeling that indicates as sure as eggs is eggs that my personal and politcal boundaries are being well breached with this one.

What are boundaries? They are defined lines around us, they are ways of knowing who we are and who we’re not, they are invisible lines which encase our emotional space, they are sometimes laws or can be decisions we make around our children. They are about defining, defending, making space and creating safety of various kinds. Governing, as John Locke told us, should only really be possible with the consent of the governed and what do we do when our government encroaches on the boundaries we have for our own lives? I’m happy to accept laws around seatbelts, Sunday trading, who should and shouldn’t be in charge of a vehicle, home ownership and, generally speaking, public hospitals. As a quick grab bag of stuff, that is, not a definitive list.

I am not prepared to accept attempts to legislate what I may or may not do with my body in pursuance of the peaceful enjoyment of my life. No one gets to tell me how to decorate, feed, exercise or educate my body neither do I recognise the right of anyone but me to make decisions about any childbearing I may, or may not, undertake.

I propose that we withdraw our co-operation and support from what the Federal government is proposing to do to maternity care in this country. Let’s take back our power by simply refusing to allow the government to decide how we will birth.

We are the governed and we do not extend our consent to laws which actively disadvantage us.

We will not participate in a system which removes our right to birth where, how and with whom we choose.

We will support other women in also refusing to support laws which go against our consciences and fly in the face of international human rights agreements.

We refuse to be a party to the oppression of our own sex and we make no apologies for it.
We make no distinction between the birthworkers and women affected by these laws and simply pledge to support those who support women in choosing bodily autonomy over government regulation where no government regulation belongs.

I propose that we create our own “safety and quality framework” just like surgeons and midwives are doing. Ours can go something like this:

We declare that women have the right to a safety and quality framework for maternity care as defined by us, and us alone.

We have the right to decide where, when, how and with whom we birth.

We declare that safety and quality are only able to be defined by individual women who have the right to bodily autonomy and that any system which seeks to force models of care on unwilling women is unethical, iniquitous and irrelevant.

We will make our own healthcare decisions based on our needs not the desires of professional groups or governments.

We acknowledge the right of professional groups to create guidelines for their members should their members so choose.

We will not recognise the desire of professional groups or government to force those guidelines upon us and our families and communities.

As consumers of the healthcare system we choose the manner in which we engage with healthcare professionals and will access care which suits us in ways which suit us.

These are basic human rights.

If this declaration doesn’t suit you, write your own. Share it, tell others, encourage other women to create a statement of intent around their own needs. No one but us has the right to decide how we birth and each woman has the right to decide what suits her needs best. Maybe yours will be “I choose to give birth in a treehouse. I’ll let you know if you’re invited.” Or “I will let the midwife of my choosing attend my birth.” It can be as simple or complex as you choose. You are the only person who has the authority to define your needs around birth, so let loose!

The government can decide how they wish to manage our refusal to engage with them but they have no right to foist an unworkable, unethical, anti-woman agenda on us. If informed consent is the buzz phrase of healthcare, we give notice that we are exercising informed refusal and we will have no truck with these laws. What are you going to do about it, Nicola?