Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Percy Rogers, Nero, $34.99.
Active Labour is an inspirational, heartfelt and emotive memoir by a pioneering Australian health practitioner.
The book’s title refers to Percy’s work as an obstetrician pioneering the Lamaze method of childbirth.
Raised in small West Australian towns, Rogers is certainly no ordinary doctor. His medical career has taken him around Australia and the world. He has treasured memories after working at a practice in suburban Coburg, Hobart’s busiest hospital, Cocos Keeling Islands, the Papuan jungle highlands and from remote Arnhem Land communities to a city in Saudi Arabia.
However, it’s working in remote Australia that has left a lasting impression.
“I thought how privileged I was, as a non-Indigenous Australian, to have witnessed a traditional ceremony of farewell to a much-loved relative, friend and valued senior of the community. Cultural traditions of the Indigenous people of Yirrkala remain deeply embedded within the community. Still, I was also dismayed to be seeing yet another untimely Aboriginal death, unfortunately all too common.”
One of the most compassionate doctors in Australia, his absorbing story takes you through an amazing number of the pivotal events of the last 90 years.
An obstetrician by training, Rogers was a passionate advocate for women’s reproductive rights, arguing that women should have a greater say in their childbirth and medical care.
His belief in equality, women’s rights and fair working conditions extended well beyond the medical profession. Rogers was an outspoken critic of social discrimination and a defender of those who could not speak for themselves.
His work took him into communities near and far, where he confronted poverty, disease and appalling living conditions as he sought to provide individuals with a basic human right – access to free and safe healthcare.
Rogers was a doctor for more than 50 years, until his retirement in 2016. Specialising in obstetrics, he worked at the Royal Women’s Hospital and helped establish its family-birthing centre.
Commendable is his life-long commitment to social activism. It is a testament to one man’s abiding, passionate belief in the power of medicine and the importance of community health.
You could one of two copies of Active Labour, if you tell us the name of the pioneering Australian health practitioner who is the subject of this memoir. Entries should be sent to [email protected] by next Monday, 12 November 2018. Names of the winners will be announced in Frank Cassidy’s PS-sssst…! column next week.
