St George’s Decision A Temporary Relief For Women, Babies and Midwives

The decision not to close the last non-hospital (primary) birthing facility in Christchurch until mid-next year is a “temporary relief” for women and midwives.

St George’s Hospital has announced it will close its primary maternity service next year when the DHB new unit opens in the city.

Whereas this is positive in the short-term, the College of Midwives says the new central city unit was never meant to be a replacement for St George’s but additional to.

College Midwifery Advisor, Jacqui Anderson, says the ongoing erosion of women’s health and maternity in particular is very concerning.

“We are very pleased with the decision today however it’s troubling we are continuing to see that those in the health system with decision-making power, clearly disregard women as mothers, women as midwives and what is best for wāhine and whanau, long-term,” she says. “It’s incredibly disappointing that our midwifery-led maternity service is not being properly resourced and supported which affects our ability to deliver the world-leading model of care we have in place. It flies in the face of everything we know about choice, women’s confidence in those choices and how supporting those choices fosters the best outcomes for mothers and babies,” she says.

Rata Midwives and supporters delivered a petition signed by more than 31,000 people, to the St George’s CE in mid-April. Rata spokesperson, midwife Sheena Ross, says today’s decision is a pleasing and they won’t give up fighting for women and babies.

“We are the largest city in the South Island and the second largest in New Zealand population-wise, and we need maternity choices and services that reflect that. Our midwives in Christchurch Women’s Hospital do an amazing job with the pressure and workload they’re dealing with so it makes sense to provide good, easily accessible primary maternity services for women who don’t need the bells and whistles of a big hospital,” she says.

The College says the midwifery profession is being significantly affected by the ongoing erosion of maternity services which do nothing to strengthen and grow Aotearoa’s midwifery-led maternity model which is the best in the world, bar none. However, Jacqui Anderson adds that the service has to be resourced properly and the College is “perplexed that the decision-makers just don’t understand that.”

“As midwives and as health professionals, primary units are key in the work we do. Collegiality, sharing our knowledge and experience, strengthens the midwifery-led maternity model to help ensure women and their babies have the best outcomes possible,” says Ms Anderson.

Sheena Ross said in late March when the petition was launched, “primary birthing services should be increasing their capacity, not reducing.”

“We should be making more primary birthing services available to women, not reducing them,” says Ms Ross.

The College and Rata Midwives will continue to advocate for midwives and women so that pregnant women’s birth choices are not further reduced, and the midwifery-led maternity service is properly resourced so that it can be the world-leading model considered globally as the gold standard for maternity service delivery.