In 1938 Hitler outlawed home education in Germany. The idea of institutionalised schooling for children was first introduced in Germany not to improve children’s education but because the Prussian leaders of the time recognised the efficacy of spreading propaganda to children. They knew that institutionalising education would ensure a higher level of control over the children who would grow up to become the soldiers, leaders and workers of Germany’s future. At the root of Prussian rhetoric of the time were the Prussian ideals of intolerance, racism, and anti-Semitism. As we know, this propaganda campaign was so successful that it gave birth to Adolf Hitler and resulted in the torture and death of millions of people. Our family tree is littered with stars of David to reflect the number of ancestors who lost their lives in Nazi death camps, in forced-labour camps and on the front lines in Russia.
Despite its controversial origins, the idea of spreading propaganda through schools took off and is now a common and effective way to change a population’s actions and paradigms. As a public relations practitioner and a parent, I well know the value in using schools to ensure greater take up of a public education initiative. When my kids come home from school laden with goodies—stickers, posters and erasers all sporting the latest government message about wearing seatbelts, walking safely to school, saving water or brushing teeth I know that the propaganda machine is well and truly oiled and that my kids will unconsciously absorb the catchy phrases and carefully orchestrated ideals the government wishes them to internalise. Really, state-based schooling is more about control than it is about fostering an independent, thinking human being.
However there is a dark side to any movement towards controlling a population’s ideas and actions. In Germany today, because of Hitler’s anti-home education law, German families can be prosecuted, jailed and have their children removed from their care. One such family had to flee the country last year—loving parents who just wanted the freedom to educate their children as they saw best. It is hard to believe that this is possible in what is now a democratic country. However, when you see the history behind this paradigm, you can understand how generations have been influenced by one, seemingly insignificant law that impacted on a small percentage of the population.
The rights of self-determination and autonomy are inherent in any true democracy. However, as the years go by I can’t help but think that democracy is slipping away from us at an ever-increasing rate.
This blog isn’t really about home education and the propaganda machine. What it is about is showing the impact of government control on the autonomy of individuals.
The Australian Government is currently considering legislation to ensure all health practitioners are registered. On the surface, this seems like a good thing and in many ways it is. However, the dark side of this reform is that it is being used as an efficient way of controlling women’s access to homebirth midwifery. The draft legislation not only penalises midwives who dare to defy it to the tune of $30,000 plus deregistration, it also penalises women and any organisation that promotes homebirth midwifery or is seen to instigate homebirth midwifery.
As of July 1 next year, Birth Matters, the journal I have lovingly edited for the past two years, will no longer be able to legally print the beautiful photographs and stories of women. To do so would put these women and their midwives in jeopardy and may result in the Journal incurring a $30,000 fine. Any midwifery blogs about attending homebirths will disappear and our stories, our folklore will be lost.
I have no doubt that this is the intention behind this legislation, that it is designed not just to control how and where women give birth but to quash the rhetoric that supports the notion of safe and beautiful birth at home. If this legislation is passed successfully, women will be the losers. Once again our rights to self-determination will be eroded. While homebirth with a midwife has been difficult in the past ten years, it will be more so now. For instance, women who could get prescription medications from a sympathetic GP for a homebirth will now not be able to do so. If the GP does this, they could be registered and prosecuted, the woman could be reported and prosecuted and their midwife deregistered and prosecuted.
Just like the family that fled from Germany to the UK last year because they chose to home educate their children, women will flee Australia to give birth in the UK and New Zealand so that they can birth at “home” safely with a trained attendant. Even if you view homebirth as something that only affects a minority of women, is this the kind of society you want your daughters to grow up in? One which forces them to subject to government control over their basic human right to choose where and with whom they give birth? Do we really want them to submit to a “just lie down and open your legs like a good girl because we’re doing what is best for you” paradigm?
The government can’t argue away the inherent rights of women on the basis of safety. There is absolutely no evidence that hospitals are a safer place to give birth for normal healthy women. Indeed, given the stories we hear day in and day out, it is clear that what happens on the birth front is neither safe nor respectful of women’s right to autonomy over their bodies. While I welcome the opportunity for midwives to attend women privately in a hospital or birth centre, I abhor the notion that this absolves the government from protecting those women who still want to birth at home for whatever reason—cultural, spiritual, physical or social.
One thing I can guarantee, women will continue to fight for their birth rite and rights because to outlaw the normal function of their bodies at home is not only absurd but an injustice. We are entering a brave new world where secret homebirth societies will flourish and midwives will form knitting circles in jail. This fight is only just beginning. I will see you on the birth front!
