October 12, 2009 – 8:45 am
Maternity care provides a classic example of the pitfalls of a specialist-driven model of practice in health care. It results in more expensive and interventionist care, rather than a community-based approach which could also help ensure a more equitable distribution of services. It has led us to talk about obstetrics, which implies a focus on [...]
Fears about the impact of swine flu upon pregnant women are generating alarm and some confusion. And not only in Australia. In Britain, various health and medical sources have been giving the public conflicting advice, according to this report in the British Medical Journal.
Meanwhile, Professor Peter McIntyre, Director, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance [...]
While the front pages and buckets of airtime are being devoured by the question of whether the wealthy should have to pay more for their private health insurance, there are other, far more important things that you could be reading about.
The 18 May edition of the Medical Journal of Australia is devoted to Indigenous health, [...]
By Croakey
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Also posted in Food, Health inequalities, Hospitals, Indigenous health, Journal articles, Media-related issues, chronic diseases, dental care, prevention, private health insurance, public health, rural and remote health
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Tagged Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, COAG, Indigenous health, maternity services, Medical Journal of Australia, pregnancy, smoking
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The sound of obstetricians crying poor in the wake of budget changes to the Medicare Safety Net is not eliciting much sympathy in many quarters.
Take this, from GP Dr Kerri Parnell, the editor of Australian Doctor, a magazine for GPs.
She writes in the latest issue: “Within a month of the Medicare Safety Net being introduced [...]
Caroline Homer, Professor of Midwifery, UTS, writes:
It’s a landmark night for maternity services for Australian women. Finally, after more than 20 years of discussion and debate this Federal government has been brave enough to acknowledge that maternity services are provided by a number of health professional including midwives, GP obstetricians and obstetricians.
Tonight’s announcement goes towards [...]
The obstetricians are out in full force, suggesting that mooted changes to the Safety Net will “punish women and their families because they chose to seek help with their pregnancy and births from doctors in the private sector rather than the overwhelmed public hospitals system”.
Really?
For another perspective, have a read of this Crikey article in [...]
April 20, 2009 – 11:31 am
The awful irony about maternity care, as an important new report from the US makes clear, is that it is the field that helped launch the evidence-based health care revolution.
The irony arises because is a field which is rife with examples of non evidence-based practice. Interventions which have been proven to be of benefit are [...]
Further to her previous post, Justine Caines comments on a new study of births in the Netherlands:
“A lot changes in a week! Yesterday a study of all births in the Netherlands was released.
This paper found home birth was as safe as hospital birth. The survey size was a whopping 529,688 births. This figure is close [...]
Justine Caines, Secretary of Homebirth Australia, has sent in the
following critique of recent media coverage about the dangers of homebirth:
“Feminism is a dirty word, especially if you are a pro-establishment
columnist. Last week many media reports questioned the safety of homebirth.
Doctors were outraged at the death of 4 babies, without revealing any case
facts. Many have regarded [...]
A study comparing outcomes for public and private hospital births was published in the Medical Journal of Australia in February.
It attracted dramatic headlines. “Public hospital births double risk for mother and baby, says report,” said the Age. “Babies die less often in private hospitals,” said the Australian. “Private hospital births safer than public: study,” from [...]
