Editorial: Time to make some noise.

We live in a time of choice. As individuals we get to have our say on any number of things, in all sorts of areas of our life.

We can choose what school we want to send our children to, we can choose when we want to have our children or we can choose not to have any children at all.

From the moment a woman is pregnant, she is faced with numerous choices. Will she find out the sex? Will she use cloth nappies or disposable ones? Will she breast or bottle feed?

So many choices, but local families have just lost an important one.

Currently, prospective parents in Taranaki don't have the option of giving birth in a maternity unit. Instead, they are left with the choice of either a hospital birth or a home birth. The only in-between will be if the baby comes faster than the father-to-be drives and the baby is delivered on the roadside.

It would be easy to shrug and say "oh well, this doesn't impact me" and ignore it.

Thankfully, we live in a town where people don't sit back and say nothing.

We live in a town where women like Jess Brocas care enough to stand up and say "hang on a minute, this isn't okay", where our mayor doesn't say "not my concern" but rather voices his opinion and gets involved, talking to those who make the decisions.

So why does the closure of the unit matter? To you, to me, and to everyone else in our district?

I believe it matters because as a community we need to support new parents, and take every action possible to make sure they are safe, secure and well-equipped for the journey of parenting ahead of them.

I believe it matters because babies don't come with an instruction manual and spending a few days in a maternity unit with trained professionals around you to help you learn how to do the best you can for this precious bundle is invaluable.

I believe it matters because new parents deserve to be able to spend a few days getting to know their newest family member, without the complications and interruptions of everyday life.

We don't live in a perfect world, and some babies need to spend some time in hospital before they can go home. My own were like that, and we were lucky enough to have fantastic care in various special care baby units around New Zealand so I am not knocking hospital care. Rather I am saying that precisely because there are those babies with those needs, beds in maternity wards can be hard to come by.

We all know of friends or neighbours who have been discharged from hospital within hours of giving birth because there is no room for them to stay. This is where maternity units make such a difference.

Having a place, in our own community, where the new mother can rest, recuperate and get to know her baby is important. To the individual, but also the community as a whole. Happy and confident parents are important for the development of their child, and our community needs and deserves the best for our children.

So what can we do?

We need to make ourselves heard. If you believe that our district needs a maternity unit, then speak up. Sign the petition, contact your MP, contact the District Health Board.

Make a noise and make sure that those who are tasked with determining the fate of the unit in Stratford know that we want women to be able to choose to give birth in Stratford if they want, and we want our community to be able to support new families through the provision of birth and maternity care in our town.

To sign the petition, click here: