At some point during the birthing process, things for us went terribly wrong.

We have lost children, or have children who are now compromised. And we can pin the blame for this outcome on the systemic failure of the maternity system in New Zealand.

Through no fault of our own, we are now faced with a future that is tainted by our past. We have become experts in labour and birth, or we have become adept at feeding our children through tubes in their stomachs, or we can cite line and verse the Ministry of Health policy on neo-natal death. None of these things did we ever think we would know or need. But because of fate, failure or the fundamentally flawed system that we call maternity care in this country, we are fighting the Good Fight. For our families, for our children and for those who do not yet know they need fighting for.

We will  not rest until the Ministry of Health takes a long hard look at the maternity system in this country and rebuilds it from the ground up. We don’t want fingers in dykes, we want whole new bridges built. The in-fighting between professionals as been allowed to continue for far too long by the Ministry. It has cost too many lives.

We are the ones who will fight for truth, for justice, and for the right of every child and every mother to have the birth and future they deserve.