Inside maternity crisis that has regions crying for help

Unless a regional maternity care crisis is fixed fast, bush towns are going to wither and even die because they won’t be able to attract a new generation of families from the city.

Alana and Kyle Hubbard in rented Dubbo accommodation five hours from their Bourke home awaiting the birth of their child. Picture Hannah Hodgkinson

Unless our regional maternity care crisis is fixed fast, bush towns are going to wither and even die because they won’t be able to attract a new generation of families from the city.

The push to get Sydneysiders to relocate to the bush for lifestyle, opportunity or affordability reasons will come unstuck if women have to travel hundreds of kilometres to give birth, warned Sarah Mitchell, the shadow spokeswoman for western NSW.

She said the widespread closure of maternity units in smaller hospitals and birthing wards being placed on bypass, which restricts their availability, means pregnant women often can’t give birth near home. Some don’t even make it to a medical facility.

“Women who give birth before arriving at hospital, including on the roadside, account for 0.7 per cent of births statewide,” Ms Mitchell said. “But in rural and remote areas, the figure jumps to 5 per cent or one in every 20 babies.”

Ms Mitchell also told of a harrowing experience for one woman who “recently gave birth … in the public toilet of Muswellbrook Hospital”.

Shadow spokeswoman for western NSW Sarah Mitchell. Picture: NewsWire/Damian Shaw

NSW Health Minister Ryan Park. Picture: NewsWire/Simon Bullard

Tamworth MP and shadow spokesman for tourism Kevin Anderson said the maternity care issue was “a genuine barrier to entry” for those contemplating relocation to the bush.

Alana and Kyle Hibbard, both 28, settled in Bourke six years ago. They intended to stay just two years.

But Alana, a primary school teacher, and Kyle, an ambulance officer, have set down roots and are now preparing for the arrival of their first child, a daughter. The twist is, they are in rental accommodation in Dubbo, 500km from their home.

Dubbo Base Hospital, where Alana and Kyle Hibbard will have their child born because they have not delivered babies in Bourke for 20 years. Picture: Ryan Young

“They used to deliver babies in Bourke 20 years ago but then couldn’t attract staff for the maternity ward,” she said. The Nationals MPs have joined key stakeholders, including mental health clinician Jen Laurie, in calling for Health Minister Ryan Park to meet with doctors, midwives and mothers from regional NSW who can share their first-hand experiences.

A government spokesman said: “No public maternity services have closed in the last two years. The list of maternity services suspended or closed under the former government is significant”.

Ms Mitchell said: “While services may be open in theory, in reality the services they are able to offer have been depleted so much in the past couple of years that they are ‘lights are on but no one is home’.”

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Originally published as Inside maternity crisis that has regions crying for help