‘Women should be able to continue to choose where they give birth’
At home, in the hospital, the birth center or in an outpatient clinic: in the Netherlands, as a pregnant woman without a medical indication, you usually have the choice of where (and how) you want to give birth. Very nice, but unfortunately not obvious.
By means of a proposed decision, the so-called ‘Integral Funding’, Minister Kuipers of Public Health wants the entire budget for pregnancy and childbirth to go to hospitals. This would mean that as a pregnant woman you have less choice in how and where you can give birth.
Major consequences
Ridiculous, thinks the Royal Dutch Organization of Midwives (KNOV). “What sounds like just a technical story has significant implications for maternity care and pregnant women. It means hospitals and midwives will be contracted together. Together they split the money, with the hospital having significantly more power than the midwife. In the future, the hospital will determine when and for what an obstetrician is paid, which affects their autonomy and independence.”
Petition
The KNOV wants integrated funding to be replaced by appropriate funding, so that women can choose where and how they want to give birth. To draw attention to this and to wake up the House of Representatives, they have organized a PRESS conference. This time no minister behind the pulpit, but two pregnant women accompanied by their midwife. They talk about their personal situation, the importance of freedom of choice and call on the Netherlands to take action by signing this petition, among other things. Curious? Watch the PRESS conference here.
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