The rate of stillbirths among women of First Nations, migrant and refugee communities is up to double the rate of the general population. It's prompted health workers to develop a suite of culturally sensitive pregnancy resources, aiming to save hundreds of babies.
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00:00 Fatima El-Assad felt totally alone when her baby daughter Aya was stillborn two years
00:07 ago.
00:08 You honestly think that you are the only one experiencing this and that nobody can really
00:12 relate to the sorrow and the grief and the depths of despair that you're feeling.
00:18 Adding to her pain was a lack of information specific to her culture and the taboos around
00:24 stillbirth.
00:25 The shrouding of secrecy and silence around it is so deafening and it really, really can
00:31 impact bereaved parents in a profound way.
00:34 Almost 2,000 families are affected by stillbirth every year. Research shows up to 30% of those
00:41 could have been prevented.
00:43 For First Nations women, the rate is even higher at 11.9 per 1,000 births. In the Northern
00:49 Territory it reaches 18.8. For women born in South Asia, the rate is 9.1 per 1,000 births
00:56 and for Central and West African born women, the rate is 14.
01:02 It's prompted health researchers to launch new kits in multiple languages aimed at supporting
01:07 those women, for example using terms like 'sorry business baby'.
01:13 Obviously stillbirth is a really sensitive topic but it's an even more sensitive topic
01:17 in the Aboriginal community.
01:18 The new resources aim to prevent babies dying.
01:22 Wouldn't it be fantastic to say we saved 300 babies as part of that work?
01:26 The key areas of prevention include supporting women to stop smoking, to sleep on their sides
01:32 and to seek help if their baby stops moving, while ensuring better management of slow foetal
01:38 growth and timing of birth.
01:41 So these resources are all about delivering optimal antenatal care.
01:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]