Midwives from Aboriginal Women's health centre Waminda will now be allowed to help First Nations women give birth at Shoalhaven Hospital after previous restrictions were lifted.
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00:00 For us at Wominda, being able to create a model of care that is actually led by Aboriginal
00:07 women and governed by Aboriginal women and having our midwives be able to provide a space
00:12 that is culturally safe, where we can actually practice our protocols and have our women
00:20 actually have that self-determination within their birthing journey and saying how that
00:24 wants to happen.
00:25 It's just amazing to be able to have that model in place now and be able to make change
00:32 and make a difference with the birthing of our beautiful babies.
00:36 And Hayley, it's a gap that's been bridged now, hasn't it, because there was the pre
00:39 and post care, but the midwives not present during that crucial time of the birth.
00:44 Oh, absolutely.
00:46 But I mean, bridging the gap is a long way off.
00:51 And we've got to be honest about why we need to have our own birth centre and why we need
00:55 to have our midwives present at the births of our babies.
01:00 Tell us a bit more about that and because of that, the reaction from women to this change.
01:06 Well, statistics tell you just how unsafe it is for Aboriginal women to be having birth
01:13 at the westernised institutions in this country.
01:16 They weren't built for us.
01:18 And so, you know, in 2024, we're finally able to have our women have their midwives present
01:24 through prenatal through to postnatal.
01:28 So it's really, really exciting.
01:30 And being able to support our mums to feel like they're actually going through ceremony
01:35 and not sick.
01:37 And it has been well documented that if a woman, any woman, feels safe in that space,
01:41 it has positive outcomes.
01:43 And this is tailored to First Nations women.
01:45 Cleo, this is the first model of its kind in Australia.
01:48 Did you hit barriers along the way?
01:50 Definitely.
01:51 You know, as Hal was just explaining around the institution and the racism within institutions,
01:59 you know, for us at Wominda, we're very big on pushback and pushing back against systems
02:04 that actually are causing harm to our women.
02:07 So, you know, being able to stand strong in what we believe in and know that it's the
02:13 right thing for our people and that we, you know, this isn't a job, this is our community.
02:18 This is about our people and it's about making change.
02:21 So yes, we definitely came up against barriers.
02:23 And the biggest barrier is the Western system collides with our culture and our law.
02:29 So it's actually getting people on board and educating people about what that looks like
02:34 and how it actually can be done.
02:36 And you know, you can decolonise systems so that it works better for our people.
02:41 You've cleared that pathway.
02:42 Hayley, will this be expanded?
02:44 Yep, absolutely.
02:45 We're on that journey of building our own birth centre as well.
02:49 So we'll be able to have our babies not birth in the Westernised hospital, but birth in
02:56 our own culturally safe space.
02:59 And tell us a bit more about those women that you're seeing that are pregnant now and knowing
03:03 that just with this change made that they will have their private midwives present there
03:07 at their birth.
03:08 Yeah, look, they're so excited.
03:11 And they're just so relieved as well.
03:14 You know, a lot of our women, you know, they're all about having their say in their birth
03:19 and they just feel like they can't, but now they can.
03:22 And having our midwives, and you know, we've got non-Indigenous midwives, but those non-Indigenous
03:27 midwives are, you know, they're coming to the table, they're practising being an anti-racist
03:33 and they're all about making it culturally safe for our women.
03:37 And then our Aboriginal women who are employed within the birthing team are all about enforcing
03:43 that and making sure that that happens.
03:45 And so our women from our community are so excited and we just can't even express in
03:50 words just how happy and relieved and just how much this is about our healing journey
03:57 as Aboriginal women and our families.
03:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]