'Backbone of health': new plan for rural maternity care

Yahoo

5 hours ago

An outback woman was fully prepared for a four-hour trip to the closest hospital to give birth.
Living in Lightning Ridge, in far western NSW, the expectant mum was pragmatic about the long journey ahead.
But she had not anticipated the dearth of basic care once she and her baby returned home.
The woman, an emergency worker, told a NSW rural health inquiry of her experience waiting for weeks to see a GP or a nurse to help her with post-birth complications and an unsettled baby.
"As a first-time mum, being pregnant in Lightning Ridge was downright scary and being a mum to a newborn ... is harder than it should be," she wrote to the 2022 inquiry.
Stories like these shared at federal and state inquiries in recent years, along with the continued closure of rural birthing services across Australia, has prompted a new plan for maternity care in the bush.
Peak health bodies, including the Rural Doctors Association and the National Rural Health Alliance, have backed the first rural maternity framework to be released since 2008.
The framework urges government investment in maternity services co-designed with locals, including First Nations communities, along with a focus on continuity of care from known clinicians before, during and after birth.
There should also be clear access to miscarriage and abortion care and a guarantee of telehealth or outreach services in remote areas.
Scholarships for rural students could be established to get more locals into maternity health roles, in a "grow your own" program, the framework said.
There was a 41 per cent reduction in maternity services across Australia in the decade to 2011, mostly in small towns, and larger regional birthing units have been frequently placed on bypass due to staff shortages.
New strategies were needed to ensure country families receive equitable care, National Rural Health Commissioner Jenny May said.
"A rural maternity service is the backbone of healthcare service delivery - keeping families close, communities strong, and ensuring safe beginnings for the next generation, while supporting the sustainability of local industry through a stable and thriving population," Professor May said.
Major regional maternity services have been placed on bypass intermittently across several states, including in Gladstone, Queensland, and Camperdown, Victoria.
Those services resumed in 2023 and 2024.
In NSW, Tamworth hospital is under immense pressure, while Bathurst, Lithgow and Kempsey maternity units are on the brink of closing down, a 2024 rural health inquiry found.
Those kind of scenarios increased the risk faced by rural women and their babies, Rural Doctors Association president RT Lewandowski said.
"Women and families often have to travel significant distances or relocate to a town or city with birthing facilities which is expensive, stressful and not acceptable for rural families living in Australia in 2025," Dr Lewandowski said.