Fair Go for Our Regions: Push for birthing support for Roxby Downs mums

Giving birth 500km away from home after spending weeks away from your loved ones is often a fact of life for Roxby Downs women.

Maddie Hillyer with children Imogen, 10 months, and Archer, 2, and Nikki Hamilton with son Felix, 8 months, had to leave Roxby Downs before and during birth due to a lack of medical resources. Picture: Brad Fleet

Giving birth 500km away from home after spending weeks away from your loved ones is often a fact of life for Roxby Downs women.

With no medical services available for birthing, pregnant women are advised to leave the mining town about three or four weeks before their due date.

They wait out their babies’ arrival in Adelaide, or in large regional towns.

Among them is Nikki Hamilton, 33, who had her daughter Ella, now 2, in Adelaide and her son Felix, eight months, in Ballarat.

“My family is all over the world, but predominantly in New Zealand,” Ms Hamilton said.

“My Mum is in Ballarat and I was going to have Ella there, but at her 20-week scan, they found a cist in the ultrasound and they were potentially going to have to perform surgery after she was born.”

Ms Hamilton said her biggest problem in Adelaide was the lack of family support.

“In the back of your mind, you’re thinking, ‘What if I go into labour and need surgery and I’m on my own?’.

In Ballarat, where she had Felix, the support of her mum made a “huge difference”.

However, it was still tough on Ella and Nikki’s husband, David, who was still working in Roxby Downs.

“David and Ella are very close, so she would miss him and he would miss her,” Ms Hamilton says.

Roxby Council chief executive Roy Blight said with an average age of 29, the lack of birthing services had a major impact on his community of about 4500 people.

“The provision of birthing facilities into Roxby Downs to provide that option for people who whish to have their children here is certainly a priority for the community,” Mr Blight said.

Roxby Downs Family Practice owner Simon Lockwood labelled the issue “an unsolvable problem”, because the town did not have a large enough population to employ two anaesthetists — the minimum needed to make way for birthing services.

“Some people stay longer than they should and that puts them and their babies at risk,” Dr Lockwood said.

Maddie Hillyer, 32, had her children Imogen, 10 months, and Archer, 2, in Adelaide — her former home base.

While she puts her temporary move from Roxby down to “country life”, one of the biggest issues is the impact on couples’ existing children.

Ros McRae, Country Health SA’s deputy chief executive for the Flinders and Upper North region, said the introduction of birthing services at the Roxby Downs hospital would not meet national safety standards.

“Birthing services at Roxby Downs would require a number of GPs with obstetric and anaesthetic skills to be based at the hospital, as well as a 24/7 roster of midwives and operating theatre staff and we know that there is not sufficient demand for these staff to maintain their specialised skills,” Ms McRae said.

A community midwife was based at the hospital, helping mothers and babies return home sooner.