Concerned mothers and families have rallied together to protest the temporary hiatus of the Tamworth Community Midwives Program (CMP), amid reports that the program could be shutting down in the near future.
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Following stories in The Leader this week about the shock move, a new Facebook group named Friends of Tamworth Maternity Services garnered over 500 members in under 24 hours.
Local mums Kimberley Kettle, Kate Campbell and Samantha Wibberley started the page on Tuesday night, following a similar page in Murwillumbah applying enough public pressure to force the health service to rebuke it’s position, and re-open their local case load service.
“I want other mums to know what to expect and experience what I experienced – I felt so supported,” Mrs Kettle said.
“We started the Facebook page because we want to see the continuity of the CMP, and we want to see the staff issues properly addressed. It doesn’t seem like they are trying hard enough to keep such a successful and valuable service open.”
While the case load model is growing in popularity, it seems the New England region is heading the other way, after Armidale permanently closed their service two years ago, followed by Tamworth closing the books last month.
Three years ago Randwick Hospital went the opposite direction, exclusively offering the service to all expectant mothers, while Westmead, Mt Isa, Broken Hill, Lismore, Alice Springs, Ryde, Belmont, Tweed Heads, The Royal Hospital for Women, Royal North Shore, Sunshine Coast and many others are growing their community services.
At that time, Professor of Midwifery at The University of Sydney, Sally Tracy, said it was “almost criminal” more hospitals were not offering midwife programs, after research found women using the programs cost the public health system less, and have fewer elective caesareans.
NSW President of Maternity Choices Australia, Sally Cusack, joined the Tamworth push this week.
“Your community will indeed suffer from losing this form of care. You did have a world leading, evidence based model of maternity care at Tamworth,” Mrs Cusack said.
“In 2010 our National Maternity Services Plan called for this form of care to be provided to all women in Australia, in line with World Health Organisation recommendations.”
