About 30 Ballarat Maternity Coalition members joined about 2000 other mothers and children from across the country to protest against government plans that would effectively make homebirthing llegal.

The government introduced laws to parliament in June that proposed, among other things, a national midwifery register.

Under the legislation, midwives must be insured to join the register but private insurers no longer provide cover for homebirthing. And the Federal Government does not want to subsidise professional indemnity for homebirth claims.

As a result, up to 200 independent midwives face deregistration from July 2010 and, if they continued working, would risk fines of up to $30,000.

But following a meeting of state and territory health ministers in Canberra last Friday, Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon announced a two-year exemption from indemnity insurance for privately-practising midwives who can't obtain cover for attending a homebirth.

Ballarat Maternity Coalition president Faye Kricak said the announcement had been "almost a relief".

"Because that's been the stress for a lot of women including myself - what will we do after July next year?" Ms Kricak said.

"Midwives still need access to indemnity insurance. In two years' time we could all be in the same position."

Homebirth Australia secretary Justine Caines told the rally that Medicare was a universal right that should apply to homebirthing. "They want us to go away. We will not go away," she told the crowd.

"We have a health minister who is a woman with a young child: it's about time they listened."