My wife recently showed me an article on Stuff about how the Midwifery Council has proposed removing the words “Mother” and “Woman” from their practice guidelines.
The omissions are among a raft of changes to the document in an effort to be more inclusive and “address a detrimental imbalance of representation, understanding and appreciation of Maori knowledge, values and practice”.
As opening paragraphs go, this left me a little flummoxed; do Maori cultural values now require the removal of “Mother” and “Woman” from all texts? Even Maori translations of them?
On its website, the Midwifery Council says revising the wording used in the guidelines has been in the making for at least two years in response to “strong signals about the need for a radical transformation of the health system, including midwifery”.
Who is sending these signals? Especially considering that most people engaging the services of a midwife are only concerned with one thing: The successful delivery of their child or children.
I’d have thought that throughout the relationship with their midwife that’s all most need or want. So, unless I am missing something, it’s doubtful that most midwifery clientele are demanding a “radical transformation”.
If they have any common sense, the Midwifery Council should be asking, why are we debating this? And could we be doing something better with our time? Especially when you consider that:
“Ten people who speak, make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
A collaborative reference group, led by co-chairs Dr Hope Tupara and Dr Judith McAra-Couper, was appointed to review the current guidelines. The group included members of both tangata whenua and tangata tiriti.
The group agreed there should be English and Maori language versions of the scope of practice guidelines, as an English version alone was insufficient.
“The longest of all deliberations occurred” about using the word “whanau” instead of the word “woman”.
Stuff
And that is where I will leave my quotes from the first article, though I encourage you to read it and make up your own mind.
It does seem that the decision was not unanimous, though I have to say it’s hard to tell who stood where, as Stuff’s writing was even more conflated than the portrayed mix of traditional Maori values and modern woke concepts.
The reason I wrote this piece is more visceral; something made me angry. About halfway through reading the article, I noticed a link to another article about Midwifery that was published on Stuff a mere few hours earlier:
A baby suffered a “severe” brain injury due to lack of oxygen during birth following “failures” by a midwife, the health watchdog has found.
In a report released on Monday, Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall found a registered midwife failed to recognise and respond to signs of a baby’s distress during labour.
stuff.co.nz/baby-left-with-brain-injury-from-lack-of-oxygen-due-to-midwifes-failures
That was a real quick shock when contrasted with the pointless academia of the previous article!
After an uneventful pregnancy with her first baby, the woman referred to as Ms A, aged in her 20s, went into spontaneous labour at 38 weeks’ pregnant… During labour, the CTG was showing abnormal readings, indicating possible foetal distress… Baby A was born in “very poor condition”, and required resuscitation and intubation.
It goes on to explain some details of what happened, and it is truly horrible, my heart and best wishes go out to the family affected.
I have noticed that lately, real-world situations like this are happening way too often, a quick news feed check regarding infant mortality is sobering, and whilst the Midwifery Council debates the cultural-linguistic nuances of their guidelines, there does not seem to be any broad investigation being conducted as to why.
Here is a chart from figure.nz showing an increasing trend in neonatal and post-neonatal deaths:
Neonatal and post-neonatal deaths in New Zealand – Figure.NZ
Where these data come from is unknown to me because official infant mortality data seems to be very out of date. And I could only find 2018 data on the Ministry of Health website. It’s also sobering to realise that it’s even harder to find deeper data about life-changing injuries.
The only reference in the second article regarding the Midwifery Council was a comment from the Deputy Health and Disability Commissioner Rose Wall.
In her decision, Wall found the midwife’s failure to identify foetal compromise, and not seeking specialist input at various points meant the opportunity to respond to these issues was missed … She recommended both midwives complete further training in documentation and foetal surveillance monitoring, and that the Midwifery Council consider whether a review of RM B’s competence is necessary.
Instead of being all over this, and ahead of the press with at least an announcement of a thorough investigation, the Midwifery Council is too busy with its proverbial noses buried in academic nonsense.
The midwife involved did seem contrite, though she obviously hadn’t received the memo on acceptable terms to use:
RM B provided HDC with an apology to the woman and her whanau.
In conclusion, when terrible things are happening to our children more and more, the Midwifery Council is focused on cultural and grammatical changes that many believe will cause more risk through confusion, and at the same time, they are nearly silent on real-world problems.
Other than ‘disgusted’, I am without further personal comment on this whole situation.
A driving force for me has always been to try to give voice to things that my loved ones struggle to put into words, and with this in mind, I sent this article to several women in my life to proofread, all mothers of varying ages. Their aggregate feedback was resounding:
Great piece, just one thing you forgot to mention! In pandering to lunatics obsessed with woke ideology, the Midwifery Council (and midwives by extension) are alienating their actual clientele: women and mothers.
These women in my life are not wrong, and the law of unintended consequences is clear here:
Fewer people will want midwives anywhere near their families.
Is this a good thing? I really don’t know, though after writing the above I can easily see why they would feel that way.
