Welcome to Birth Matters

Birth Matters is the premier site for pregnancy and birth information for South Australia.

The Birth Matters group is a not-for-profit birth information and support group established in Adelaide in 1999. It aims to provide good information to prospective parents and new parents to enable them to make genuinely informed choices regarding pregnancy, birth and parenting.

Birth Matters is run on a voluntary basis by people who believe that birth can be experienced as a enjoyable, satisfying and momentous life event. They hope to inspire others by providing a forum for sharing positive birth stories and providing books, videos/DVDs, statistics, and other support materials about pregnancy and birth in Australia. It is hoped that this will help to dispel much of the fear about birth that can erode people's confidence. We also welcome health practitioners and students to our meetings to hear birth stories and listen to what consumers want from their birth experience. You can read our philosophy here.

Latest News

• The National Review of Maternity Services was launched in Adelaide on September 10th by the Federal Health Minister, Nicola Roxon. The Government is using this to direct changes to how maternity services are provided in Australia. They have sought community responses to their Discussion Paper. Information and the downloadable paper are available here. The Birth Matters submission is available here.

• A 2030 Vision for SA Maternity Care was developed at a ThinkTank of leading consumers and midwives in South Australia in May this year. The Vision statement is available here.

• The Ricki Lake film "The Business of Being Born" is now available for purchase in Australia. Visit www.bellybelly.com.au for details, or see the film trailer and join the official email list here.

• Our latest public information seminar was NBAC - Next Birth After Caesarean on 15 August 2008, which was attended by 50 people at Eastwood Community Centre. Details for our next seminars are available here.

• QUESTION TIME - PARLIAMENT HOUSE 8th May Mothers and midwives, along with bellies, babies and toddlers, will be in the Public Gallery on Thursday 8th May to hear MP Frances Bedford air their grievances about maternity services in SA. Read Maternity Coalition Media Release here. Photos here.

• NEW LIBRARY ADDITIONS have been made recently - some more fantastic books, including Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, and double copies of 4 excellent birth DVDs (including an excellent homebirth DVD with information from Marsden Wagner, former Director of Women's and Babies Health for the World Health Organisation) .

Past News

• April 2008 - Our Homebirth Information Night was highly successful, with almost 50 people attending and hearing great information about the benefits of homebirth, who facilitates homebirth, homebirth practicalities; a homebirth story from new parents; seeing a lovely home-waterbirth DVD; and taking home a bumper package of homebirth information. Find out more about homebirth here

• December 2007 - The Business of Being Born, the new documentary film by US TV personality Ricki Lake on the "inconvenient truths" about childbirth, was co-hosted by Birth Matters and Maternity Coalition (SA Branch) and was a big success at UniSA with over 250 people attending on Sunday 2nd Dec. See the film trailer, join the official email list, or order your copy of the DVD www.thebusinessofbeingborn.com See pictures of the event here.

• July 2007 - Another of our highly successful Waterbirth Information Nights sold out well before the event. Find out more about waterbirth here.

• March 2007 - Birth Matters coordinated a successful stall over several days at Womadelaide to promote the local birth support groups.