Although the United States spends more on healthcare than any other nation on earth, it experiences the highest maternal, fetal, and neonatal morbidity and mortality rates of all industrialized countries. At the same time, New Zealand has earned an international reputation for providing one of the best maternity healthcare systems in the world.
In New Zealand, a healthy pregnancy is viewed as a normal physiological life event rather than a medical condition, a place where expectant mothers are referred to as ‘Clients’, not ‘Patients’. Midwives are the primary caregivers for healthy pregnancies, working collaboratively with obstetricians whenever medical complications or obstetric complexities arise. The result is a system that protects normal birth whenever it is safe to do so, while ensuring rapid access to specialist care whenever it becomes necessary.
This is not about choosing natural birth over modern medicine, or naturopathic over allopathic. It is about knowing when each approach offers the greatest benefit – all while following international gold standards of best-practice protocols.
Kathy Fray was educated, trained, and practiced within New Zealand’s internationally respected maternity system. Her teaching reflects decades of experience combined with current international evidence and the practical wisdom gained from supporting thousands of women through pre-conception, pregnancy, labor, birth, and the postpartum period.
The MotherWise MasterClasses do not tell women what choices to make. They teach women how to understand the evidence, evaluate their options, ask better questions, and confidently participate in decisions about their own and their baby’s care.
That is the New Zealand approach. And it is what every mother deserves access to – regardless of where in the world she lives.