Women in rural aeras are delivering babies over video
Most Australian babies are born in hospital with the help of dedicated experts. But in rural areas where hospital maternity wards have closed, some women who go into labour early are having their babies via video call, with doctors dialling in to help.
Transcript
00:00 We are still seeing the knock-on effects of what's happened during COVID. I think birth
00:06 via telehealth was probably something that was occurring. You know, when we speak to
00:12 women in our community, the reality is, is if they had had to birth that way, it's highly
00:18 likely that there would have been a very serious adverse outcome. So in terms of the prevalence,
00:25 like I say, we don't fully understand the scope, but we know that there is a maternity
00:30 system in crisis and we need to be capturing data on the prevalence of this issue. And
00:36 that's what we need our state governments to be looking at and the federal government.
00:41 Outcomes and access is difficult wherever you are, but we know that there are difficulties
00:47 for regional and rural services. They're closing and that something needs to happen, something
00:54 needs to change. I mean, it's important to acknowledge that, you know, telehealth actually
00:57 serves a purpose and is definitely useful in emergency situations, but this shouldn't
01:03 be the norm for birthing families. We know that local hospitals are doing the best that
01:09 they can, but they just don't have the staff or resources for women and babies. And that
01:14 is further evidenced by the New South Wales parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma. I
01:19 wish I could say that there was a clear answer. I think expecting people to move away from
01:25 their support systems at possibly one of the most vulnerable points in their lives, it
01:30 doesn't really seem like a good option, does it? So we need to look at other ways so people
01:36 aren't forced to birth in situations where they have no medical facilities, no access
01:41 to pain relief. And not only do they, you know, the joy of being pregnant and looking
01:48 forward to having a baby is kind of taken away with that stress of where are they going
01:53 to give birth? Are they going to give birth? Safety? And of course, we need to remember
01:58 that there's a really difficult balance in caring for higher risk women without wanting
02:04 to separate them from their support network. So there is no simple answer, but I definitely
02:09 think as a standard, we need to be looking at formalized regular training for those clinicians
02:15 working in regional and remote communities.
02:19 [BLANK_AUDIO]