06-05-2025
Northern Territory women delay pregnancies, travel interstate as only private maternity ward shuts
Northern Territory women say they've been "robbed of choice" ahead of the territory's only private maternity ward closing.
Some women have told the ABC they plan to travel interstate to give birth, or delaying pregnancy altogether.
Darwin Private Hospital (DPH) is closing its maternity services on June 6, leaving the NT the only jurisdiction in Australia without a private birthing ward.
It's expected to have
Darwin mother Danielle Mulhall is heading interstate for the birth of her second child due to the NT's only private maternity ward closing.
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ABC News: Pete Garnish
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Darwin mum Danielle Mulhall and her husband will travel to Sydney for the birth of their second baby.
Ms Mulhall's pregnancy was conceived through IVF, which comes with a greater risk of complications.
With her first pregnancy, also IVF-conceived, Ms Mulhall needed surgery right after birth and spent the next five days in hospital.
"The aftercare was what was really important for us,"
she said.
"The complication that I had, which was a retained placenta, that is considered more common in IVF — and then once you've had it once, then that risk increases again.
"I won't have the privacy to be able to look after my next baby in that really comfortable environment, I won't have the support of my husband in that time as well."
Maternity services are even more scarce in the bush
In the remote Gulf town of Borroloola, Ashley Bradford doesn't have the option to travel interstate.
There are no options to have a hospital birth in Borroloola, with mothers sent to either Katherine or Darwin when they're about 36 weeks pregnant.
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ABC News: Hamish Harty
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She had to travel almost 1,000 kilometres to Darwin for each appointment during her first pregnancy.
She had a consult to plan her second pregnancy just two days before the private maternity ward closure was announced.
"I had all the referrals lined up … [it was] a shock to the system," she said.
A single mum by choice who needs fertility assistance to conceive, Ms Bradford has delayed a second pregnancy until her options become clearer.
Ashley Bradford, who's lived in Borroloola her whole life, is now raising her son Beauden in the remote Gulf community.
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Supplied
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"It's not a matter of private versus public, one being better than the other," Ms Bradford said.
"It's one of the first choices you make in parenthood … you feel a bit robbed to not have that choice.
"For me it was also a personal choice as out remote you don't have regular doctors all the time. I really wanted that consistency of care."
Ms Bradford also experienced serious complications during her first donor-conceived pregnancy, and had to spend almost a week in hospital post-birth after being diagnosed with preeclampsia.
Ashley Bradford has delayed having another baby until her options to have private maternity care become clearer.
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Supplied
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"I got full body tremors and I couldn't hold my son. I was so grateful my mum was able to stay with me in the private ward … and the staff there gave me that extra support," she said.
"If I get preeclampsia again and I'm out of the hospital, at home, will that be picked up as quick?"
Thousands call on NT government to step up
More than 1,200 people have signed
Lia Finocchiaro said the NT government was "trying to make the best of a terrible situation".
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ABC News: Pete Garnish
)
The NT government has promised to work with health insurers to offer families 24/7 postnatal care through either
But five weeks out from the closure of the private maternity ward, the NT government is yet to secure private providers to deliver these services.
Photo shows
a person (obviously in hospital) holds a very newborn baby up against monitors
The closure of two major private maternity units in Darwin and Hobart are the latest in a long-running problem with birthing units closing around the country. Here's why it's happening.
Chief Minister Lia Finocchiaro said the tender process was still underway, but "everything with the transition is on track".
She was also confident RDH could take on the estimated 300 extra births per year.
"A lot of the staff who were in the maternity ward at the private hospital are now coming across to the public system," she told ABC Radio Darwin.
Tasmania secured federal help, why didn't the NT?
In announcing its Darwin closure, Healthscope said
The Tasmanian government successfully secured
Federal Solomon MP Luke Gosling said the NT government had not requested similar support from the Commonwealth — a claim Ms Finocchiaro didn't deny.
Despite
But the uncertainty is weighing on first-time mother Brooke Illingworth, due next month in the public hospital.
Brooke Illingworth, who's due to have her first baby next month, is concerned Royal Darwin Hospital is too overburdened to cope with the extra maternity load.
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ABC News: Pete Garnish
)
"We don't know what's happening and we're very close to the end,"
she said.
"It's nothing against the staff themselves and their capabilities in the public hospital, [the concerns are] the aftercare and the continuity."
Ms Illingworth said she would likely move interstate to have another child.
"We're a capital city. For that choice to no longer be there, it's just really devastating," she said.
