Living Wisdom / AVN E-newsletter

I had no choice...

Those words have been going through my head a lot this last couple of weeks. Mainly because I have been contacted by a couple of health professionals who submitted to vaccinations despite the fact that they had already had serious reactions. They were told that they had no choice - if they wanted to keep their jobs, they would be vaccinated.

Both of these people had serious, life-threatening long-term reactions which are still keeping them out of paid employment. Oddly enough, they both were diagnosed with the same disease - Lupus Panniculitis. Their symptoms were almost identical and while one of them has been dealing with this for a matter of months, the other one has been disabled since 1992.

When the first person contacted me, she said that she had contacted all of the 'specialists' at the hospital to ask if her condition could be related to the vaccine she had been given (Hep B) just prior to falling ill. All of them said with great confidence that there was no link. While I was on the phone, I did a quick google search for the words Hep B Vaccination and Panniculitis. I got 3,410 links.

When the second person contacted me a matter of days after the first with such a similar story (she had actually lost a Worker's Compensation claim because the doctors stated in court that there had never been a connection between Hepatitis B vaccine and any longer term side effect!), I realised that we might actually be looking at a 'tip of the iceberg' situation.

So, do these people have the right to make choices? And just as important - does the government or an employer have the right to tell you what risks you must take with your health in order to keep your job?

What do you think? Please write in and let me know. And if you are an employee of a public hospital in any state in Australia, let me know if you're willing to do something about this. Write to me at [email protected] and let's see if we can get some action happening on this dreadful abuse of our rights.

Pain-Free Fund raising

Maternity Immunisation Allowance
As you are aware, the AVN is always trying to raise money to keep its operations going. A couple of our members have recently donated part of their Maternity Immunisation Allowance to us. They said that without the AVN's lobbying Parliament to get legislation put through to ensure their rights to government entitlements, they wouldn't have this money or the Childcare Allowance anyway so they felt that we deserved part of it for our support of them. We thought this was a great idea! If you are in a position to give us a portion of your Maternity Allowance, we would be very grateful - just one more idea that hopefully won't put too big a hole in anyone's pocket.

Ritchie's IGA
Ritchie's IGA, an independent grocery chain with stores in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland, has a community benefits program that gives any charity a percentage of purchases made. I have nominated the AVN for my percentage and would really appreciate it if those of you who shop at Ritchies would do the same.

Visit www.ritchies.com.au to find out the location of your nearest store and consider doing your shopping there. On the upside, IGA's generally have a very wide range of organic and local produce and pay growers and local producers a much higher price for their goods - both things that we should want to support.

Until next time, stay well and stay healthy,
Meryl.

National Maternity Services Review: Have Your Say!

pregnant Homebirth Access Sydney (HAS), along with other similar groups across the country, has been lobbying for reform of Australian maternity services for many years.

HAS believes that all women should be supported to choose the place and the practitioner that they feel most comfortable with for their birth and that models of care should recognise midwives as experts and primary carers in normal pregnancy and birth.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognises midwives as the most appropriate and cost effective type of health care provider for the care of healthy pregnancy and birthing women and the safety of planned homebirth is now well established in both Australian and international research.

The Federal Minister for Health Nicola Roxon released a new discussion paper Improving Maternity Services in Australia on 10th September. The paper can be found here.

The Federal Government is using this paper to seek input from the community about prospective changes in maternity services and is seeking responses from individual women, carers and community groups about how to improve local maternity care.

I am emailing you to strongly encourage you to respond to the discussion paper and send a clear signal to the Government that Australian women, our families and communities are ready for reform.

Responses are due by the 31st October and can be emailed to: [email protected] or sent to:
The Secretariat
Maternity Services Review
MDP 94, GPO Box 9848
CANBERRA ACT 2601

You might also like to send a copy of your letter or email to Federal Member of Parliament and/or Senator.
happy home birth

This is a fantastic opportunity for mothers, families, midwives, and other birth professionals to have their say and I would really encourage you to send in your thoughts. Even if you only have a few minutes it would be really useful for you to send an email with a couple of key points such as:

High/lowlights of your own pregnancy and birth;
That women who birth at home are less likely to have interventions including assisted deliveries and caesarean sections;
That keeping well women and their babies out of hospital beds represents a significant cost saving to Government;
That you support expanding the Medicare schedule to include midwives so more pregnant women can access midwife-led care;
That you urge the Government to assist midwives to obtain appropriate and affordable professional indemnity insurance.

Your support for this process is really crucial. Please make the most of this great opportunity to have your say about the future of birthing in Australia. And circulate these details to your family and friends to encourage them to respond also.

HAS looks forward to the Rudd Labor Government implementing a new system of maternity services as soon as possible as a way of providing better, safer birth choices for Australian mothers.