continuing the countdown - May

We midwives have now received the draft (13 May) 'Safety and Quality Framework for Privately Practising Midwives attending homebirths' (SQF).

Readers of this and linked blogs (such as midwivesvictoria) will be aware of concerns that the government's reform of maternity services would in fact put extreme limitations on the ability of midwives to provide primary care in the community, and particularly homebirth.

The first draft of the SQF confirmed our fears. A set of 'mandatory requirements' would effectively double-regulate midwives in private practice, as if private midwifery were a different profession from midwifery in mainstream hospital employment. In the MiPP response to the first draft, I wrote:

". ... MiPP recommends that broad inclusion factors be applied to midwives' eligibility for the exemption, rather than the fairly narrow approach that is outlined in the draft. We recommend that all midwives who are currently in private practice should be eligible for the exemption ... The only mandatory requirement should be that the midwife is registered by the National Nursing and Midwifery Board to practise midwifery without restriction."

It appears from the new draft that this recommendation has been accepted:
"This framework will be provided to the NMBA (Nursing and Midwifery Board) with the intent that it is placed in a code or guideline. ... The exemption applies [for all midwives] even without a NMBA approved code or guideline providing guidance for a quality and safety framework."