Page 2208 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 31 October 1989
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unsatisfactory in the sense that it is underfunded and does not achieve the sorts of goals that the volunteers who run it are attempting to achieve.
I particularly wanted to comment on the midwifery early release scheme, and I draw from my own experience with my own family. It was my wife's wish after she had our first child to spend eight days in hospital, which she did and that was very satisfactory. But her choice with our second child, and similarly with our third child, was to spend a much shorter time in hospital. Some of the most important reasons for that had to do with the psychological advantages of being at home with the other children. She herself felt well enough under both those circumstances to decide to come home.
Mr Berry in his statement pointed out that, naturally, the mothers will continue to receive support from community nurses as is normal in the ACT. Let me compliment the community nurses who have provided that support. But when people are encouraged to be at home one questions whether that support will be enough under the current community nursing scheme or whether the community nursing scheme needs to be expanded in order to provide that support.
The paper that Mr Berry presented emphasised that it would be the woman's choice, that nobody would be forced to leave hospital, but there was certainly some inclination of encouragement. I have no difficulty about that encouragement. I think that encouragement must come with the extra support - not the standard support, but the extra support - for those women and hence for the community nursing program. There is no point shifting the responsibility from one sector out of hospital into community nursing without also providing some extra support for the community nursing facilities. I think that is a most important factor.
The Medicare incentive program also addressed the intraocular lens implant programs and several other programs, but it is some time since this was tabled and I want to just make a couple of small comments on that Medicare incentive program. I feel that the comments there on the midwifery program in particular are most important, but also I would like to take the opportunity to emphasise that one of the alternatives that we have, another method of saving money as far as this goes, is to look much more carefully at the birthing centre possibilities.
I welcome Mr Berry's statement today - now that he has returned I will re-emphasise it - that they will be looking at a birthing centre. The emphasis of that birthing centre should be on allowing mothers to have their choice in ante and postnatal care as well as birthing care, and should also look particularly at staffing primarily by midwives. There is already in Canberra a body which is called the Birthing Network. If that Birthing Network is part and parcel of the sorts of consultations that I know have
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