Informed Consent in New Zealand

Initial audience responses at 2 Auckland screenings of the new documentary ‘Freedom For Birth’ , were thankfulness that the maternity system in New Zealand unlike Hungary, the USA and many other nations, offers a full range of birth options;  a choice of Lead Maternity Carer and support of midwifery autonomy. Or does it?

NZ Care Contrary to NZ Law.
However during the film, some audience members’ heads were nodding in acknowledgement of accounts about fear-mongering and other coercive means to gain women’s consent such as when a health professional stood over an exhausted woman and said a cesarean section was the means to end her turmoil ‘now rather than later’. After the film several women spoke of being separated from their babies for observation ‘just in case’ or  the baby going to another hospital where it was given formula with-out the mother’s consent, here in Aotearoa! But none of these incidents are consistent with the New Zealand legal requirements of the Health and Disabilities Commission’s (HDC) Code Of Consumer Rights which all hospitals need to meet to maintain their Ministry Of Health (MOH) funding. According to the HDC Consumer Rights include; Continue reading →