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Focus: Keep MGP open
Key contacts: Samantha Wibberley, Kate Campbell, Kimberley Kettle

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This group is to support our maternity services at Tamworth Rural Referral Hospital. Join us in making sure this service stays open!!

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Late April, advised that MGP at Tamworth Hosp being closed (approx 120 births/yr - entire hosp: 1000 births/yr).

2 May: wrote to The Northern Daily Leader newspaper asking for women to contact MCA to start campaign.

Got in contact with Kimberley Kettle and Samantha Wibberley. Created Facebook group - 900 members v. quickly

5 May: Women rallied against closure.

Mid May: Women met with LHD and got agreement to establish a consumer engagement committee.

early June: LHD called for EOIs for committee members. Closing date: 31/7.

Sally and Samantha's abstract to speak at ACM's Annual ACM Conference (on 18 Aug) about Tamworth campaign accepted!

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Friends of Northern Beaches Maternity Services

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Friends of Northern Beaches Maternity Services

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(Closed group)
Focus: Achieve engagement with private co. building new hospital
Key contact: Helena Mooney

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This campaign is almost 3 years old.

Key concerns: MGP will be available for public patients at new Northern Beaches hospital. Also concerned that this new hospital will mean removal of birth services at Manly and Mona Vale Hospitals (both due for closure when new hospital opens next year).

New hospital is a joint public/private venture, in the hands of HealthScope who refuse to engage with consumers and LHD won't take steps to force them to engage.

Current strategy: raise public awareness of what lack of proximity of continuity of care will mean for women of this region.

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Friends of Blue Mountains Hospital Midwifery Care

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Friends of Blue Mountains Hospital Midwifery Care

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Focus: Reopen MGP
Key contact: Chloe Hill

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MGP closed approx 2 yrs ago.
Facebook group formed Sept '16.
Local women given campaign steps to consider. Group formed and starting to meet to engage local media and politicians

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(Public group)
Key contact: Sally Cusack
Current focus: Formation of standing consumer engagement committee

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2015-2016: Reopening of Murwillumbah Birth Centre
Early 2016: Introduction of Maternity and Newborn Services Strategic Plan.
Early 2017: Formation of MGP at Tweed

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Key contact: Rachel Bryant
Current focus: See renovations of birth centre completed, including antenatal clinic moved and donations acknowledged.

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May 2015: Birth ceased without warning.
3 June 2015: Rally outside hospital.
CEO commissions external review, which recommends reopening of birthing, closure of ward, development of strategic plan.
Birthing reinstated in 5 months, by October 2015.

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18 Aug. Presented at ACM's NSW Branch Annual State Conf

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18 Aug. Presented at ACM's NSW Branch Annual State Conf

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TWO key campaigners in a shake-up of Tamworth's maternity services have shared their story of grassroots activism with a semi-national audience.

Samantha Wibberley and Sally Cusack were selected by a committee to speak on day one of the 2017 Australian College of Midwives' state conference today.

The talk, Women Moving Mountains, described how the Tamworth mother and Maternity Choices Australia state president, respectively, kicked off a swell of support and action when the local midwifery group practice (MGP) was in jeopardy.

The conference is being held at the Powerhouse Hotel in Tamworth.

Its theme is Birthing in the Bush: What does the future hold?

About 140 midwives, students and industry representatives from at least three states and territories are attending.

The speakers told how a concerned phone call about the MGP's future had led to letters to the editor, dozens of media stories, hundreds of supporters, a rally, a petition - and now, the formation of a community committee to decide where to from here.

Ms Wibberley said the ball started rolling in such a big way because Tamworth area women overwhelmingly wanted "continuity of care and meaningful engagement".

"As soon as [Friends of Tamworth Maternity Services] Facebook group was created, women flooded the page with expressions of sadness that the MGP was closing," Ms Wibberley said.

"The expressed their love for the midwives and the huge difference it made to their births.

"They all [shared] how knowing their midwives and being involved in the decisions for their care led to better outcomes and faster recovery."

As for the future, Mrs Cusack said it was important for "mothers and midwives ... to work together if we want to see change".

"All midwives in hospitals need to be a united front. We want to move mountains, but we need to do this shoulder-to-shoulder with midwives," she said.

ACOM president Caroline Homer said it was "not uncommon" to see such waves of action from women who were pregnant or had just had their first child.

"[They] will get political because they've either had a great experience and want other women to have that ... or, sadly, more commonly, they haven't had a great experience and want to make sure someone else doesn't have the same experience - or them, next time they have a baby," Professor Homer said.
WHERE IT ALL STARTED: The letter that started the public ball rolling Sally Cusack's letter in response: 'All is not lost' The Leader steps in

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Moving mountains in maternity: local story in state conference

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TWO key campaigners in a shake-up of Tamworth's maternity services have shared their story of grassroots activism with a semi-national audience. Samantha Wibberley and Sally Cusack were selected by a committee to speak on day one of the 2017 Australian College of Midwives' state conference today.

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Have drafted a response to Hospital Manager's comments.

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A PREGNANT Tamworth woman says she's "very concerned about what's in store for [her] birthing experience" after being an agitator for change at the local hospital.

Samantha Wibberley told 140 people at a midwives' conference last week she felt "unsafe" after having "not exactly been management's best advocate in recent months".

"Personally, I'm unsure of the future of my care," she said.

"The treatment I have received so far from management, not the midwives, has me very concerned about what's in store for my birthing experience."

Hospital general manager Catharine Death told The Leader there need be "no concern around" Ms Wibberley's complaints affecting her care.

"We welcome people's views: that's how we improve, whether through our complaint process or consumer groups. We absolutely welcome the feedback," she said.

Birth of a movement

Ms Wibberley, of the group Friends of Tamworth Maternity Services, was selected to present at the Australian College of Midwives' NSW conference with Maternity Choices Australia state president Sally Cusack.

They told the story of how they'd become aware of an intake hiatus in the local midwifery group practice (MGP), which provides a one-on-one, continuity-of-care model.

They shared how the community had mobilised to assure the MGP's future, which has recently included establishing a maternity consumer committee.

Ms Wibberley said there were several "challenges moving forward".

"We are uncertain of: the LHD's [Local Health District] commitment to the MGP and their understanding of what it provides families; the hospital's ability to provide a respectful workplace that can go through much-needed reform; how meaningful the consumer engagement committee will actually be; and whether the core service can provide respectful, safe and quality care in the meantime."

'Respect, dignity, safety'

But Ms Death said she wanted to "absolutely assure" Ms Wibberley of the latter.

"I'm very clear that any person from any walk of life in our community is welcome and should be treated with absolute respect," she said.

"It's the one area you should be treated with respect, dignity and safety."

Ms Death said she wanted to emphasise that while the MGP was "a great service and will be back up to full strength when we have the staff", the hospital's core maternity service handled most of the 1000 births there every year and was staffed by "ultimate professionals".

"The midwives group practice is the icing, but the cake is the core," she said.

"Only a small percentage of women can be on [the MGP] program - if they're high-risk they can't be, and at any given time, women may need to be converted to the core service.

"The most important thing is the safety of the woman and baby, and I think sometimes that's lost in translation."

Ms Death said the core service drew on specialists including midwives, obstetricians, registrars, support staff and clinic staff.

"This is the backbone and the foundation; they shouldn't feel they're second-grade."

She said all the local midwives "do fantastic work here".

Related: Mother, baby, ova: how three generations suffer if birth goes bad

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Pregnant woman feels 'unsafe', but hospital says good care 'absolutely assured'

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A PREGNANT Tamworth woman says she's "very concerned about what's in store for [her] birthing experience" after being an agitator for change at the local hospital. Samantha Wibberley told 140 people at a midwives' conference last week she felt "unsafe" after having "not exactly been management's best advocate in recent months".

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This wasn't my complete wording that the journo quotes, although her text makes it look that way.

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Maternity Choices Australia NSW president Sally Cusack joined local woman Samantha Wibberley on the podium during the Australian College of Midwives state conference in Tamworth last week.

Their talk focused on the community action being taken to secure the future of the local midwifery group practice.

In closing the presentation, Ms Cusack spoke to the 140 midwives and students about why continuity of care was so important to so many women.

Below are her words:

The practice of midwifery has intergenerational impacts. With epigenetics, we know how the expression of genes is affected by stress hormones. How a pregnant person is treated when giving birth will have an impact not just for them and their baby, but for the fully formed eggs within a female-gendered baby being born. It also directly impacts how their mother will go on to raise that child. However subtle the birth attendants' input may seem at this time, we have all, in fact, been impacted by how our grandmothers and our mothers were treated during birth. Mothers want a say but will rarely ask, 'Will you treat me like you would your own daughter or sister, with love and respect, like I'm the centre of the universe, even? Because at that moment when my baby emerges, that's exactly what I am'. What a privilege it must be for all of you here to be with a woman at that moment. A woman never forgets how she was treated during her birth. This may be the 800th baby you've caught and the end of a very long shift - but for this mother, this experience is unique and completely transformative. She deserves - she needs - reverence from everyone in the room. In this world, with our ever-increasing challenges it presents us, our future generations need it. Pregnant woman feels 'unsafe', but hospital says good care 'absolutely assured'

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Mother, baby, ova: how three generations suffer if birth goes bad

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Maternity Choices Australia NSW president Sally Cusack joined local woman Samantha Wibberley on the podium during the Australian College of Midwives state conference in Tamworth last week. Their talk focused on the community action being taken to secure the future of the local midwifery group practice.

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No birthing for over 2 years. Key contact Sally Torr.
July: 2 x LHD managers went to council meeting to address concerns. No real information given. Sally to recommend to council that CE of LHD needs to go to council.

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Meeting with Health Minister Brad Hazzard

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Meeting with Health Minister Brad Hazzard

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Date to be confirmed, in September

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Late Aug: first meeting held, 5 consumer reps, 1 indigenous community rep.

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KA: will organise meeting with Samantha, one other member of FTMS and Catherine Death. (Due in Sept.)

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Campaign to increase access to MGP. Consumer engagement committee being established currently.