A major national forum on rural maternity services
has delivered suggested high priority actions and solutions for
governments and health services to vastly improve access
to local maternity care for rural women and their babies.
More than 70 key stakeholders met at Parliament House in
Canberra yesterday to discuss the issues and challenges in
supporting rural women to birth safely close to home.
The National Rural Maternity Forum was held against the
background of more than 150 rural maternity units having been
closed over the past 20 years, with many others downgraded and
bypassed.
Hosted by the Office of the National Rural Health Commissioner and supported by the Rural Doctors
Association of Australia (RDAA) and Australian College of Midwives (ACM), discussions at the Forum
were focussed on developing a suite of agreed solutions that could help return, retain and develop
maternity services in rural and remote communities.
“The importance of local maternity services to rural and remote communities was underlined by the
incredibly high level of interest and wide range of attendees at the Forum” ACM’s Chief Midwife,
Alison Weatherstone, said.
“The 70 attendees included consumers of rural maternity services, Midwives, Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander peak bodies, Rural Generalist (RG) Obstetricians, GPs and GP Obstetricians,
Consultant Specialist Obstetricians, Nurses, Allied Health and representatives from the state and
federal health departments.
“Importantly, a number of those in attendance were rural mothers themselves, so have had direct
knowledge of the challenges that rural and remote women face in accessing maternity care and
birthing services in their own communities – and rural mothers’ experiences were also shared via
video at the Forum.
“The overwhelming support we received for the Forum – and the practical steps that our attendees
delivered yesterday – really demonstrate the strong interest there is in addressing the challenges that
have affected rural maternity services for so long.
“Further significant investment and a targeted focus is needed to halt the decline in these muchneeded services in rural communities. We call on the Government to make rural maternity services a
health reform priority.”
RDAA President, Dr Megan Belot, said it was wonderful to see positive, practical solutions
coming from the Forum.
ACM Chief Midwife, Alison Weatherstone (left)
RDAA President, Dr Megan Belot (right)
“The first step following our Forum will be for the National Rural Health Commissioner, Adjunct
Professor Ruth Stewart, to discuss the priority recommendations with Government and Department
representatives” Dr Belot said.
“Other key actions coming out of the Forum include:
• Requesting that the issue of rural birthing services is included on the agenda for a
forthcoming National Cabinet meeting that will focus on health.
• Expansion of the use of the RISE Framework1
to not only increase Birthing on Country
services nationally, but also more broadly to include rural and remote maternity care. The
RISE Framework’s four pillars to drive this important reform include redesigning health
services, investing in the workforce, strengthening families, and embedding Aboriginal and/or
Torres Strait Islander community governance and control.
• Secure funding for a National Maternity Workforce Plan, in order to build and sustain a strong
rural maternity care workforce of Midwives, GP and RG Obstetricians, Consultant Specialist
Obstetricians, Aboriginal Health Workers, and Allied Health Professionals.
• Establishing national minimum standards for rural maternity care access and service. The
issue of national consistency for a range of other maternity policy areas was also a subject of
much discussion during the Forum.
• Reviewing the National Consensus Framework for Rural Maternity Services, updating it to
reflect changes and advances within maternity care, and then its immediate implementation.
“These actions are essential to ensuring that we not only save rural maternity services from closure
and downgrading, but indeed expand their role in their communities, ensure their sustainability into
the future, and re-open previously closed maternity services” Dr Belot said.
“Rural and remote women and their babies deserve local access to high quality birthing services.
“Our Forum has delivered key actions that can help make this happen.”