DMS (Inc.)

The contractual process enabling DMs [domiciliary midwives] to access the Maternity Services Benefit (MSB) was long established, as was the mechanism for her to obtain specified supplies free of charge through the Midwifery Orders.[1] However it was the very low level of remuneration that provided a constant and real cause of concern for DMs, one which created ongoing challenges to their ability to continue in practice… At the 1977 United Women’s Convention in Christchurch, participants at a home birth workshop advocated that the [Department of Health] make available a grant to DMs to set up practice and buy equipment.[2] Thus began a fourteen year long campaign by home birth consumers, women’s health lobbyists and DMs aimed at achieving a level of MSB payment that would ensure a viable home birth option (Banks, 2007, p. 88).