Review of maternity services in New Zealand.

The provision of maternity services is a subject close to my heart. Like many other key life experiences nothing can prepare you for the reality of actually having a baby. It wasn't until I became pregnant with my first child Joseph in 1997 that I realised there was much more to having a child than the physical and emotional rigors. The politics of health are not exactly user-friendly, especially to the first-time mother and the initial hurdle of selecting the person who would look after me through the pregnancy and birth was not a straightforward process. Clear and unbiased information on which to make an informed decision was not easy to come by. Ultimately it worked out well for my son and me, but from talking to other women I became aware that access to the Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) of choice was more a myth than a reality for some. When I was asked as a member of the National Health Committee (NHC) to chair the review of maternity services I was enthusiastic about the project because I believed it was time women had their say. It seemed to me that the perspective of the consumer was often drowned out by the din of the various factions keen to assert their pre-eminence over the provision of maternity services. The NHC review of maternity services is timely. Repeated tinkering with the funding and structure in the past decade has sparked extensive and often heated debate between the health providers. There was anecdotal evidence to suggest many mothers-to-be were concerned they were no longer able to access the highest quality service of their choice. The Minister of Health wanted to know if the system was meeting women's needs and if not, what could be done about that. This review has provided women with the opportunity to have their say about how they want publicly funded maternity services to work for them. Reaching traditionally hard-to-reach women in the six months allocated for the review was always going to be a big challenge. With the help of agencies like Te Puni Kokiri we held 12 hui with Måori women around the country. An NHC-commissioned Pacific Islands reference group specifically accessed the opinions of Pacific women. As well, the review team met with women who live in isolated rural areas, young teenage mothers, refugee, new immigrant mothers and women from Asian communities. Through these …