Page 3042 - Week 08 - Thursday, 16 August 2018
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national average of 22 per cent. Through quality improvement at Centenary the hospital has also successfully reduced its rate of perinatal tears below the benchmark rate.
To extend choice for birthing mothers who prefer to birth at home, the ACT government also offers women an opportunity to be part of our homebirth trial. The trial commenced in October 2016 and to date has seen 13 babies born at home. As we collate the results of this trial and plan for the next stage, ACT Health will be considering its options to expand the service, to include the north side through Calvary hospital, which I acknowledge was one of the recommendations in the estimates report.
As we know, our city is growing and with this we can expect to see more babies born every year across our city. To ensure that the care available continues to meet the needs of our growing community, ACT Health and Calvary have been working closely to develop a new territory-wide approach to better manage maternity care across the ACT. We want to make it easier for women to access maternity services and to understand their choices from that very first prenatal appointment to birth, immunisations, 12-month check-ups and beyond. I am pleased to update members on this work today and the government’s vision for the future of public maternity services in Canberra. This body of work has been in development for quite some time and I am very excited about it.
To better manage the demand for our maternity services, support our staff and improve the experience of patients, significant work is underway to modernise our maternity services even further. ACT Health has started this conversation with Calvary Public Hospital, the community and key stakeholders, in partnership with the Women’s Centre for Health Matters. We are consulting on a new and expanded territory wide approach that will be easier for families to navigate as they get used to the great news that they are soon to become parents.
We are fortunate to have two hospitals that provide low and medium-risk maternity services on both sides of Canberra, as well as a health facility at Centenary that can provide tertiary-level maternity care to those women and babies who need it from Canberra and our broader region. In transforming how maternity services in the ACT are offered, our focus is on providing streamlined access to high quality care at the right place, with supports and connections to women’s local community wherever possible.
ACT Health work closely with new mothers through their journey from conception and prenatal care through to birth, as well as after care beyond the birth and their baby, and do so in an individualised, skilled and caring way. Care is taken to acknowledge the wishes of patients along this journey and ensure that mothers are well equipped to manage the demands of pregnancy and have an awareness of important activities, such as attending regular appointments, self-care, nutrition and exercise and monitoring foetal movements. This care extends right through to birth, when different approaches, birthing methods and pain relief may be used.
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