Long-standing Discrimination Against Women Finally Addressed

Proposed changes to ACC legislation to cover birth
injuries addresses long-standing discrimination against
women, according to New Zealand’s only specialist
physiotherapist in pelvic health.

Dr Melissa Davidson
helped prepare Physiotherapy New Zealand’s submission to
the Select Committee on the Accident Compensation (Maternal
Birth Injury and Other Matters) Amendment Bill
2021.

Currently birth injuries are not covered by ACC
which means thousands of women are living with unnecessary
long-term disabilities and reduced quality of life. While
the legislation will not be retrospective, it does mean that
women in the future will get funded treatment.

“We
are pleased that this wrong is being put right. It will
result in better outcomes for women and hopefully remove
financial barriers to seeking treatment. All women should
have access to the help they need following child birth
which is why we will be pushing for fully-funded
treatment.

“Pelvic health physiotherapy is the first
line of conservative treatment recommended for women injured
during child birth and it has a very high success rate in
improving the quality of life for women. In fact most women
would benefit from pelvic health physiotherapy after the
birth of a child whether they are injured or not,” said Dr
Davidson.

Physiotherapy New Zealand has welcomed the
legislative review. However Chief Executive Sandra Kirby
says the closed list of injuries to be covered doesn’t go
far enough.

“We believe all injuries should be
covered. We made that point in our submission. The list will
be reviewed in three years and we’ll continue to advocate
for a change. Our submission included that the legislation
should be retrospective to ensure those women who shared
their experiences to the Select Committee would also be
covered,” said Sandra
Kirby.

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