Mater Misericordiae Hospital Mackay - Queensland Centre for ...

Indicator 13: Can women choose the gender of their care provider(s) for labourand birth?Gold standard care is defined as women being able to choose the gender of their care provider(s) for labour and birth.We asked women: “Could you choose whether your care provider(s) for labour/birth were male or female?”The graph displays the percentage of women who said that they could choose the gender or their care provider(s).STATEWIDE PUBLIC10Mackay Base Hospital (n=96)13Mackay Birth Centre (n=14)7Proserpine Hospital (n=36)3STATEWIDE PRIVATE27Mater Misericordiae Hospital Mackay (n=122)340 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100Best public hospital in Queensland:Mareeba Hospital 29%Best public birth centre in Queensland:Townsville Birth Centre 29%Best private hospital in Queensland:Nambour Selangor Private Hospital 36%What do women say about their care?“My birth plan was not read or ignored as I was given amale midwife half way through my 22 hour labour. I did notfeel able to object at this painful time… a male studentmidwife was also allowed to walk straight up to me and askme whilst I was paused between painful and frequentcontractions if he could observe.”“I also was very uncomfortable with having males in theroom other than my partner. I made staff aware of this, andas I started pushing a male paediatrician came into theroom to observe me. I felt this unnecessary as I had nocomplication or drugs.”28