Several weeks ago I spoke at a rally in support of the rights of mothers to give birth in their own homes. The federal government is currently reviewing the role of midwives within the health system but the issue really erupted after the release of a study of 300,000 births in South Australia conducted by Marc Keirse of Flinders University.

Unfortunately the study's findings were taken completely out of context, resulting in headlines like this in The Australian.

Part of the reason for the hysterical reporting was that AMA president Dr Andrew Pesce, who happens to be an obstetrician, issued a press release citing the study as evidence of the dangers of homebirths. Not surprisingly the line was swallowed by most of the mainstream media.

It's disappointing, but not entirely unexpected that the AMA would use the medical evidence so selectively. After all they're paid to defend doctors' interests.

In actual fact, the study actually has some quite good news for midwives. To see just how misleading the reporting has been, I suggest reading through this sensible analysis in Crikey.