The Maternity Coalition is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n advocacy group which aims to improve the provision of maternity services to parents. It consists of individuals as well as other non-government organisations.

Philosophy

The Maternity Coalition:

• encourages a woman-centred approach to the birth
  Birth
  Birth is the act or process of bearing or bringing forth offspring. The offspring is brought forth from the mother. The time of human birth is defined as the time at which the fetus comes out of the mother's womb into the world...
  
   process;
• regard pregnancy
  Pregnancy
  Pregnancy refers to the fertilization and development of one or more offspring, known as a fetus or embryo, in a woman's uterus. In a pregnancy, there can be multiple gestations, as in the case of twins or triplets...
  
   and childbirth
  Childbirth
  Childbirth is the culmination of a human pregnancy or gestation period with the birth of one or more newborn infants from a woman's uterus...
  
   as normal physiological processes, not illnesses;
• stresses the social, cultural and psychological factors influencing childbirth;
• supports midwives as the primary caregivers for women in normal birth;
• emphasises women's rights to make informed choices about their caregiver and place of birth;
• promotes continuous assessment and critical evaluation of technologies used in maternity care;
• supports the development of services sensitive to women's varied cultural and physical needs.

Its statement seeking political reform of maternity services is outlined in the National Maternity Action Plan

National Maternity Action Plan

The National Maternity Action Plan is an Australian document prepared by maternity consumer groups to alter the way Governments fund and resource maternity services.-History:...

 which was prepared by The Maternity Coalition in 2002.

Membership

As an umbrella organization it has institutional members from all States and Territories as well as individuals.

• Friends of the Birth Centre, Canberra
• Friends of the Birth Centre, Mackay
• Australian College of Midwives
  Australian College of Midwives
  The Australian College of Midwives is the peak professional organisation representing midwives and midwifery policy in Australia.Key strategies of the ACM are to:* Provide a unified political voice for the midwifery profession...
  
  

National

• Robyn Payne 1998-2000
• Dr Barbara Vernon
  Barbara Vernon
  Barbara Vernon PhD is an Australian birth activist who lobbies government for improved provision of maternity services, particularly the expert use of midwives. She was the Executive Officer of the Australian College of Midwives from 2002 to 2010....
  
   2001 - 2003
• Justine Caines
  Justine Caines
  -Activism:Justine Caines was National President of Maternity Coalition, the national umbrella organization for maternity lobbying in Australia from 2003–05 and 2008-09. She was the National Co-ordinator of Homebirth Australia from 2001–2006 and secretary from 2006-10. She was also National...
  
  2003 - 2005
• Leslie Arnott, 2006
• Cas McCulloch, 2007
• Louise Hartley, 2008
• Lisa Metcalfe, 2009-2010
• Ann Catchlove, 2010