OCEANIA
N.D. (No Date)
Birthing on Country. (N.D.). Access https://www.birthingoncountry.com/
- Birthing on Country has been described as an international movement with the overarching aim of returning birthing services to Indigenous communities and Indigenous control to enable a healthy start to life. The Birthing on Country agenda relates to system-wide reform and is perceived as an important opportunity in ‘closing the gap’ between Indigenous and non-Indigenous health and quality of life outcomes
AUSTRALIA
2023
Capper, T. S., Williamson, M., & Chee, R. (2023). How is cultural safety understood and translated into midwifery practice? A scoping review and thematic analysis. Nurse Education in Practice, 66, 103507–103507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2022.103507 Accessed https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1471595322002219
- Australian midwives’ level of understanding of cultural safety and how it is translated into their midwifery practice when caring for First Nations women and their families differ widely. Midwives across Australia require increased and equitable access to appropriate opportunities to improve their knowledge and understanding of cultural safety.
Watkins, V., Nagle, C., Yates, K., McAuliffe, M., Brown, L., Byrne, M., & Waters, A. (2023). The role and scope of contemporary midwifery practice in Australia: A scoping review of the literature. Women and Birth : Journal of the Australian College of Midwives. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2022.12.001
- There is a mismatch between the operational parameters for midwifery practice in Australia and the evidence-based models of continuity of midwifery career that are associated with optimal outcomes for childbearing women and babies and the midwives themselves.
Willis, O. (2023). Labour induction is increasingly common in childbirth. Some new mums wish they were better informed. Accessed https://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2023-11-13/labour-induction-australia-safety-childbirth-rates-increased/101630142
- Australian data shows that in 2021, a higher proportion of women who were induced went on to have a C-section or instrumental birth than those who went into labour without intervention.
2022
Birth Sense Australia (2022). Models of care in Australia. Access https://www.birthsenseaustralia.com.au/news-notes/2019/5/31/models-of-care-in-australia
- Site discusses pros and cons of public hospitals, shared care, birth centers, private hospitals and home birth
Capper, T., & Thorn, M. M. (2022). Bullying in the Australian and New Zealand Midwifery Workforce: A Scoping Review. Women and Birth : Journal of the Australian College of Midwives, 35, 46–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2022.07.130
- The issue of bullying in midwifery was first reported almost three decades ago (Hastie, 1995). Bullying sadly continues to be an inherent part of midwifery workplace culture (Catling et al., 2017), a culture within
2019
Homer, C. S. E., Cheah, S. L., Rossiter, C., Dahlen, H. G., Ellwood, D., Foureur, M. J., Forster, D. A., McLachlan, H. L., Oats, J. J. N., Sibbritt, D., Thornton, C., & Scarf, V. L. (2019). Maternal and perinatal outcomes by planned place of birth in Australia 2000 – 2012: a linked population data study. BMJ Open, 9(10), e029192–e029192. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2019-029192 Accessed https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/9/10/e029192
- Conclusions This is the first Australia-wide study to examine outcomes by planned place of birth. For healthy women in Australia having an uncomplicated pregnancy, planned births in birth centres or at home are associated with positive maternal outcomes although the number of homebirths was small overall. There were no significant differences in the perinatal mortality rate, although the absolute numbers of deaths were very small and therefore firm conclusions cannot be drawn about perinatal mortality outcomes.
2012
Dahlen, H., Tracy, S. Tracy, M. Bisits, A., Brown, C. and Thornton, C. (2012). Rates of obstetric intervention among low-risk women giving birth in private and public hospitals in NSW: a population-based descriptive study. Accessed: https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/2/5/e001723
- Conclusions Low-risk primiparous women giving birth in private hospitals have more chance of a surgical birth than a normal vaginal birth and this phenomenon has increased markedly in the past decade.