Birth Matters (Adelaide, South Australia – birth support group)

WHO WE ARE:  Birth Matters is a not-for-profit referral and support service which was established in Adelaide, South Australia, in 1999. It aims to provide good information to prospective parents and new parents to enable them to make informed choices regarding pregnancy, birth and parenting. Birth Matters is a voluntary group run by parents who have experienced birth as a momentous life event. They hope to inspire others by sharing their birth stories and providing books, videos and other support materials about birth issues. It is hoped that this will help to dispel much of the fear about birth that can erode people’s confidence.

WHAT WE DO:  We attempt to provide accurate, well-researched and up-to-date information on birthing matters, including:

• choices of care providers and where to birth to suit your needs and preferences
• alternative ways to deal with problems that may occur during pregnancy and birth
• information on issues surrounding pre-natal testing and birth interventions

We can also refer people to resources that many of us have found helpful, including information on: birth preparation classes, breastfeeding services, support and information for fathers, sole parenting resources and support, birth support people and doula services, options if you are overdue, vaginal birth after caesarean, homebirth, waterbirth, and studies, statistics, books and websites.

MONTHLY COFFEE MEETINGS:  Birth Matters holds monthly coffee meetings usually on the 3^rd Thursday of each month, with evening sessions starting at 7.30pm and morning sessions at 10am, at Eastwood Community Centre, 95 Glen Osmond Road, Eastwood (in central Adelaide). For details, contact the people named below. We welcome anyone who is interested in pregnancy and birth issues - whether to ask questions, find out more about the group, meet an independent midwife or midwifery student, meet other women and men to hear their birth stories, peruse our library, or share a coffee and chat.

Meeting dates for 2006 are:

Thursday 16 February 10am–12 noon; Thurs 16 March 7.30pm–9.30pm; Thurs 20 April 10am–12; Thurs 18 May 7.30pm – 9.30pm; Thurs 15 June 10am-12noon; Thurs 20 July 7.30pm-9.30pm; Thurs 17 August 10am–12; Thurs 21 September 7.30pm – 9.30pm; Thurs 19 October 10am-12noon; Thurs 16 November 7.30pm-9.30pm; Thurs 14 December 10am-12noon.

SPECIAL “BIRTH CHOICES” SEMINARS: Birth Matters holds regular “Birth Choices” seminars every 4 to 6 months. These run for 2-3 hours and cover either specialised topics, or general issues such as choices of care provider, birth companions and birthplace in South Australia, medical interventions, pain relief options, vaginal birth after caesarean, homebirth and waterbirth. The format is informal and provides opportunities to ask questions. Partners welcome. A short but inspiring birth video is presented and people are encouraged to discuss issues with the midwives and others who attend who are able to provide perspectives of giving birth with different types of care provider and with a variety of choice of birthplace. NEXT SEMINAR: “WATERBIRTH INFORMATION NIGHT” Thursday 30th March, 7pm, Eastwood Community Centre, 95 Glen Osmond Road (city).

Contact us for details.

Subscribing to Birth Matters

Annual subscription to the Birth Matters group entitles you to receive our quarterly newsletter (see below), to borrow resources from our library at our monthly meetings, and to have your say at our regular business meetings.

Standard subscription is $20 per year, although concessional membership is available at $15. Subscription money enables us to print and distribute the newsletter, print birth information sheets, pay stall fees for public events such as the Baby & Parent Expo, and purchase resources for our library. If you would like to subscribe, please forward to us your name, postal address, telephone number and email, along with payment, contact us by any of the means as listed above, or come along to a coffee meeting (dates above).

Our Newsletter

We produce a quarterly newsletter for those who subscribe to the group. It is filled with media articles; birth stories; articles on recent medical research; profiles of independently practicing midwives; articles about various subjects & therapies as they relate to birth and pregnancy; statistics and other matters of interest. There is also a resources section listing contact details of independent midwives, and other practitioners supportive of woman-centred maternity care.

Library resources

Subscription to Birth Matters entitles you to borrow from our collection of the most useful and up-to-date books and videos about pregnancy, birth and parenting issues. Our resources are updated regularly and available to subscribers at all coffee meetings.

Birth Stories

In Australia we rarely have the opportunity to attend births and learn first hand about the entire experience, prior to giving birth ourselves. This lack of contact with birthing women contributes to the ‘culture of fear’ surrounding birth in Australia. We encourage people to attend our meetings to listen to others’ birth stories. This particularly helps to build up confidence, and reduce fear of the unknown. It also provides the opportunity to consider experiences of birth under a range of different settings, and which might be most suited to your needs or preferences.

Our Philosophy

• We believe that a woman-centred approach to the pregnancy, birth and postnatal journey gives the most satisfaction with experiences and outcomes, both for women themselves, their babies, their families and their careproviders
• We advocate the World Health Organisation view that midwives are the most appropriate primary caregivers of women in normal birth
• We emphasise women¹s rights to make informed choices about their caregivers and their place of birth
• We regard pregnancy and childbirth as normal physiological processes, not illnesses which require routine hospitalisation
• We support the concept of providing a known midwife, and one-on-one midwifery care, for every woman in Australia

Campaigning for Better Maternity Services

Finally, Birth Matters also has a more public role. We respond to media and political issues related to birth and maternity care. We campaign to ensure that the World Health Organisation’s recommendations on birthing practices are implemented in South Australia and we work to change the community’s perception of birth from a fearful and painful experience to one of satisfaction and empowerment.