OBSTETRICIANS have stepped up their counter-attack against a push to give midwives a bigger role, claiming dire consequences will result if a federal review recommends allowing midwives to practise with inadequate medical supervision.
With the federal health minister, Nicola Roxon, already on record as indicating some sympathy for the midwives’ pitch, specialist doctors say the Government should first consider what they claim are the ”harmful effects” experienced in New Zealand, which moved to a midwife-led system in 1990.
http://www.homebirth.net.au/2009/01/obs-bleating-as-they-get-scared-for.html