Page 1209 - Week 05 - Thursday, 4 June 2020
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This was a very collaborative inquiry, done by a small version of a mother’s union. There was unanimous agreement about the content of the report and also unanimous agreement as to the number one recommendation, and that it should be the number one recommendation. It is:
The Committee recommends that the ACT Government ensure that the planning, design and delivery of maternity services in the ACT is woman- and baby-centred.
Basically if that happens then all the other recommendations effectively fall underneath it. Despite that, we did make 74 recommendations. I will highlight only a few, you will be glad to know.
One that I will highlight is the idea of trialling the implementation of a first 2,000 days program to address the needs of mothers and babies. This highlights the importance of the days from birth to year 5 for a baby’s and then a young person’s life. Such a program has been implemented in New South Wales. It includes support for babies and families who need it because of their specific circumstances, as well as for babies and families who have pre-existing vulnerabilities and disadvantage. It is to ensure that every baby gets a good start and that every mum is adequately supported to be part of that.
One set of recommendations, 56 to 61, all support the need to continue homebirthing as an ongoing option in the ACT. This is something that I and my Greens colleagues have been banging on about for many years. Giving birth is, while it is risky, a natural part of life. Homebirth has been happening for millennia and it is entirely possible to do it safely and in a way that supports the mother, the baby and the rest of the family very well.
I previously mentioned my thanks to the submitters. I would also like to mention, though, that, as is the nature of these sorts of inquiries, we did not hear from everybody. As well as not hearing from the people who had a good time, we did not hear particularly from disability organisations or from LGBTQI organisations, and I suspect that some of the mothers who could have been involved in those may have had some useful contributions. Unfortunately, it turned out that we did not have evidence from people where the child was born with intersex variation or a disability that led to things other than what they had expected.
The other big lack is that we did not get much evidence, or any, from mothers in lower income groups or vulnerable families. There was no submission from ACTCOSS or Winnunga, and I do not think there were submissions from any of the women’s refuges. I think that this is a lack because we tended to get our submissions from a cohort who may not have had some of the problems that women who are in lower income or more vulnerable positions may have had.
We also did not get significant evidence from CALD mothers. I wonder how much of an issue it is if you are giving birth and your caregivers speak a different language from you. I assume it is really not a plus. It would have been good to hear more about
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