July 19th 2019 8pm AEST (a recording will be available afterwards in the free member area) The Trouble with Consent in Childbirth and How to Fix it Our insurance driven, medicalised maternity system is giving lip service to women’s rights in the form of ‘informed consent’. The trouble with this is that women are rarely …
A WORD ON IDENTITY AND LABELS …poetry follows This recent news article is an interview with comedian and writer, Ben Elton, about his new book Identity Crisis (which I have not read). Of particular interest to me was this quote: “And yet actually the communities people seem to really care about is not the national community …
For those Down Under, May 12th is Mother’s Day. It also means Term Two has begun for our schoolies, and winter is coming. And this year, it also means: ELECTION! The Federal election is on Saturday May 18th. Do you know what happens to your vote? It’s a big decision, and the order you choose …
“I’m off to consent Number three” Said the midwife on the busy ward. Checking her watch, she marched away. More checks on her arrival, in Number Three, A monitor thumped, a machine beeped And the midwife noted it all down. A man sat in the corner, of Number Three. Looking lost, worried and …
One of my earliest memories led a near 40 year journey through The Stages of Being. I would say that I am now in Stage 4. Understanding. I am here because of some very patient and caring friends. And now that I am here, with the fog of ignorance lifted, I feel expanded. And …
We have a huge problem in our society. And it is not that women need time and support to ‘recover’ from birth. The problem is we have developed a culture of segregation: where babies and mothers are not immersed in the ‘every day’ where children are sent off to school and adults to work where …
To induce or not to induce – is impatience the question? I have heard some extraordinary reasons to justify induction, but this one takes the cake: “we can’t be sure of the conception date, so it would be dangerous to go past your due date” err…then how do you know the ‘due date’? and why …
LEAVE THE UMBILICAL CORD UNCLAMPED! and by that I mean Don’t Cut the Cord! It does not need to be tied off – with a clamp, shoelace, floss or crochet tie. I am deeply concerned that in 2019 it is still widely promoted by medically trained people that this is necessary. IT IS …
Full Cream asks Won’t Somebody Think of the Fathers! And raises some excellent points, relevant not just to breastfeeding, but also to birth – and life in general. Women are consistently expected to step aside, to accommodate the needs of others – in this case, the father. The blog post was a response to an article …
There once was a dentist, honest and bold Who felt their story was best told As The trouble with consent, Despite good intent, Means uncertainty in how things unfold This is a story about tooth extraction. It tells a tale of a woman’s visit to a dentist, and the dentist’s need to obtain ‘informed …
