Every time I walk past a disused 'Mothers and Babies clinic',usually a red brick building located near Public Transport and a shopping strip,I feel a rage inside me on behalf of all women. The assets and resources established in the 1920s and 30s are being decommissioned and the so called service transferred to GPs and nurses. Gone are the midwives and maternal and infant welfare practitioners. The budget line for maternal health services whether in hospital birthing centres or council run clinics is being swallowed up by the bureaucrats.Bureaucracy before frontline services is the only way state govts can find the cash to keep themselves out of the red.They cut maternity services, antenatal, post natal and infant welfare. I had 2 children in the 1980s. I had midwife support through the pregnancies, the natural deliveries, lactation support and babywellness clinics. My children were enrolled in a govt childcare centre which employed a paediatric nurse. The cost per week was $65 for fulltime care of a baby and a toddler. There was a system then called fee relief. Child care that is another story. I got 7 full days in hospital to recover from the birth and successfully establish lactation. What do women get in 2013? A few hours. As soon as you deliver the paperwork is done to discharge you. It is not a maternity and well woman program, it is a production line. Women today are treated like wilderbeest, expected to waer as bage of pride that you are on your feet within hours! Breastfeeding rates are not increasing despite the education programs, Post Natal Depression is through the roof and increasingly babies are dumped at child care centres by mothers who prefer to go to work than successfully bond. I dont blame them. There is not the support thereform either the government or society. A question for Abbot: Why are you squandering 5.6 billion on an exorbitant Paid Parental Leave scheme when maternity services are in this parlous state? And what about childcare? What happening to the pay increase for child care workers?

'Every time I walk past a disused 'Mothers and Babies clinic',usually a red brick building located near Public Transport and a shopping strip,I feel a rage inside me on behalf of all women.'

Wow. Intense.

I get that rage too when I see people wearing their cap back to front.

'They cut maternity services, antenatal, post natal and infant welfare.'

I reckon it's more the competition from the super big medical centres in the shopping malls. We used our local early childhood centre, even though they tried to push feminist propaganda on my partner and asked her 'routine' leading questions about whether she was 'scared of her husband'.

' I had midwife support through the pregnancies, the natural deliveries, lactation support and babywellness clinics.'

We had all of this available, in the late 2000s. We used what we needed. A lot of people don't. They don't have time. They're at work. The medical centres are open later. In shopping malls where you can visit Dan Murphys on the way home.

'My children were enrolled in a govt childcare centre which employed a paediatric nurse. The cost per week was $65 for fulltime care of a baby and a toddler.'

Seems excessively generous, no wonder tax rates were high.

' I got 7 full days in hospital to recover from the birth and successfully establish lactation. '

My god! My partner wanted to go home the next day, so she did. She would have hated that.

' increasingly babies are dumped at child care centres by mothers who prefer to go to work than successfully bond.'

prefer? How judgmental. Ummm House prices. Successfully bonding is BS. Hippie crap. Like attachment parenting. How far, and how obsessed with parenthood people are becoming. Everyone bonds with their children.

In the end, I am very happy with the services we decided to utilize, and know there were many other services we could have utilized. I'm also happy with the cost and affordability of childcare. Though I think it could be even cheaper if they allowed a higher child to carer ratio.

We were so presently surprised at the care taken by our early childhood nurse who visited us in the first few days the baby was home, it seemed like gold plated service.

I was offended at that feminist propaganda my wife had to fill out of course, but I suppose everyone has an agenda, and a biased and leading survey was the least of our worries at the time. Come to think of it, the Antenatal classes had quite an ideological bent as well, with the instructor somehow of the opinion all men were chauvinistic pigs needing to be patronized and re-educated. Must be something about being a man in the female dominated industry of child birth, I really did sense a lot of barely concealed hostility to men.

We had friends whose child couldn't sleep, and they easily found specialized help. We had friends who had breast feeding issues, and got very good help from a lactation expert.

The only problem we had was the pressure from breast feeding Nazis, who in their determination to make it work poured enough guilt on my partner to bring on some mild post natal depression. As a couple we made the executive decision it was our baby, and the mental/emotional health of my partner and the effect on our toddler was more important than whether the new baby enjoyed breast milk after we tried for a month with all sorts of hassles.

I don't know why there is such a political environment around child birth. Why breast feeding, c-sections, everyone seems to have a real political motivation. Makes it hard to trust any advice. Mid wifes vs Gynos, private vs public health, breast feeding at ANY cost, it's a mine field.

Still, we managed to thrive through all the political BS from all these vested interests, and I am sure most people do.

I understand where the author is coming from, but I doubt all women feel the same as she does.

Houlebeck seems to take her article as a personal affront to his manhood!
Your reaction was a tad extreme I thought:
". Must be something about being a man in the female dominated industry of child birth, I really did sense a lot of barely concealed hostility to men."

The "female dominated industry "?
Did you want men to do the actual birthing of the babies so you can feel more in control, is that it? Lol...

Neither me nor my husband (I hate the word 'partner' , when discussing your heterosexual lover...a partner is someone you have in business, or else your gay lover) felt any hostility towards men before, during or after my daughter's birth.
In fact, my husband felt uncomfortable being asked to be too involved in the proceedings!

I had nothing but great support for successfully breast feeding my daughter, and my husband was fully involved in all aspects of my daughter's childhood.

I am sure all couples have different experiences of the birth of their children, and I think, for the main part, most new mother's health and wellbeing IS considered a priority these days.

I'm not married Suze. Shocking I know, what would you prefer I call my partner.

'Did you want men to do the actual birthing of the babies so you can feel more in control, is that it?'

Nope, but that about sums up the attitude I am talking about. If you take an interest, pay attention and support your wife, you get the attitude above, if you don't you're considered a chauvinist pig. That's exhibit A from Suze the nurse on the attitudes men encounter.

Basically any man is treated like an idiot by the mid wives, patronized and talked about as if it's expected he's going to be really upset if he misses a weekend of golf to look after the baby and the mother. The tone of your response is pretty typical of the attitude a 'mere male' is dealing with throughout the whole thing.

'In fact, my husband felt uncomfortable being asked to be too involved in the proceedings!'

Maybe the ridiculous attitudes I encountered are tailored to the likes of him.

"I don't know why there is such a political environment around child birth. "

Of course you do...

In an era of hard-fought for and ongoing emancipation, gender egalitarianism and equalitarianism, birthing is the only area that is and likely will remain the single thing that women can do and men cannot.

All the natals: pre, peri and post, are the prerogative of women.

With everything else in society rightly targeted for equal outcomes, this is the only thing left that males have no option but to rely on women.

And women know this.

Many use the emotional power this supplies. Many don't... at least not in ways males notice.

If the roles were reversed the potential power games would be the same.

Just agree on a 'safe' word with your partner (or husband or wife, or all three) before playing.