 
ABN 82691324728
www.maternitycoalition.org.au
Hon. David Campbell
247 Princes Highway
Corrimal 2517 | Colin Markham
Suit 2/65 Kembla St
Wollongong 2500 | Marianne Saliba
60 Princes Highway
Dapto 2530 |
Dear Local Members for the Illawarra Region, We write as members of Maternity Coalition, to request your support to implement the National Maternity Action Plan in the Illawarra. Currently less than 1% (0.2 percent) of women are able to access the care of a known midwife throughout pregnancy, birth and the post-natal period. This care has been proven to be the most cost-effective and appropriate care for the majority (80 percent) of women who can experience normal healthy pregnancies and births. An increase in the level and diversity of maternity services within the Illawarra is essential as the current resources are over stretched and inadequate. Introduction of community midwifery care within the Illawarra would give women a choice in maternity care and free up scarce resources for use where necessary. As a regional centre, the Illawarra needs to provide women with choice and access to safe, high standard and cost-effective maternity care. The National Maternity Action Plan provides this and has already been extensively trialed in Western Australia with outstanding results. Please help us to get community midwifery programs established in Wollongong and Shellharbour Hospitals. Members of the National Maternity Coalition are presenting an implementation plan to the NSW Health Department's Maternity and Peri-natal Committee this week. We urge you to use your power and influence to ensure the implementation begins as soon as possible and that the Illawarra is one of the first areas to gain access to improved maternity care through community midwifery programmes. Support for the implementation of the National Maternity Action Plan in the Illawarra will: Reduce health expenditure on healthy women (80% of women who give birth at Shellharbour are assisted by a midwife only); Retain the skill of independent midwives within our community; Help redress a national shortage of midwives (New South Wales estimated 500 shortfall); Provide women of the Illawarra with best practice maternity care that has proven to provide better outcomes for mothers and babies, (low intervention in birth, greater rates of breast feeding, and reduction in the incidence of post-natal depression). The full NMAP and Implementation Document can be found at http://www.maternitycoalition.org.au We look forward to you response. | Maternity Coalition
Illawarra Group
C/- L. Metcalfe
29 Oceana Pde
Austinmer 2515 |
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