Report Broken Link

Informed Consent - Issues for Midwives

Abstract:

When the organising committee started planning this conference, they were very aware that 1998 represents ten years from the release of Judge Cartwright's Report on the Cervical Cancer Inquiry (committee of Inquiry into the Treatment of Cervical Cancer at National Women's Hospital and other related issues - the Cartwright Inquiry). In preparing this paper it seemed fitting to go back and read that Report once again. Much of my time is spent defending midwives and I constantly see the grief, the guilt, the worry, the self-doubt and general feeling of devastation that consumer complaints cause to the midwife and her family. A number of the complaints seem unjustified and the motivation is not for understanding, reasonable recompense or a just outcome, but is to exact punishment or revenge. It is not uncommon for the complaints to go through multiple forums and take up the time and energy of years of the life of the woman, of her family and of her midwife and of her family as well. At the end of it all there is often no resolution, no peace and no sense of satisfaction for either side; indeed the nature of these conflicts seems to leave the parties indelibly changed. Women lose their trust in midwives and in their own ability to birth, midwives lose their trust in women and their joy in birth. The win/win situation is seldom achieved.

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consumer complaints, consumer rights, informed choices, informed consent