NEWS RELEASE - Tuesday July 6 2004

Rural Mothers Urge John Anderson to support the return of maternity services

"Country women and families seem to have been forgotten by the Federal Government" said Justine Caines, National President of the Maternity Coalition, mother of 4 and resident of Merriwa in rural NSW.

Today, Ms Caines will urge Deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson to support innovative solutions to provide rural women with safe and sustainable maternity services when meeting with him in Scone.

"Currently many rural and regional women are forced to travel hundreds of kilometres for maternity care. The current situation is not safe and women deserve better" said Ms Caines

"There is however a positive solution. Many rural services could be re-opened using skilled midwives. Midwives are experts in the care of normal pregnancies, and as around 80% of women experience normal pregnancies this is a workable solution." said Ms Caines

Midwives working in rural communities could also provide much needed women's health services and critical post-natal support. By bringing this care back within communities we are not only supporting and strengthening families but re-invigorating the towns that have lost these important services."

"Communities have been led to believe that services were removed because they could not continue safely, this is simply not true. The majority of women can give birth in a primary unit very safely, in fact safer than if in a large overstretched hospital and certainly more safely than if giving birth in the car on the way there" said Ms Caines. "It's time governments stopped paying lip service to the needs and aspirations of country families and started funding and implementing programs that can make a difference."

Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott has shown no commitment to providing rural women with safe and sustainable maternity care. Recently he reported that he would enable Obstetricians to cost shift their fees back to Medicare to save their private patients the many thousands of dollars in gap payments they are currently being charged - a cost shift from the private sector to the public sector.

"We are confident as Deputy Prime Minister that Mr Anderson will act and provide incentives for the re-opening of rural maternity units." By providing local, primary health care to pregnant women we can support our new mums and strengthen families from the very beginning. After all supporting a family is high on the Federal Government's agenda." said Ms Caines

Contact: Justine Caines 0408210273

P.O. Box 1190
Blackburn North,
Victoria 3130
Australia