This document is a submission made in 2018 by the APS to the Australian Health Ministers’ Advisory Council’s National Strategic Approach to Maternity Services Consultation
The APS submission acknowledges that conception heralds a period of enormous psychological change for women and their families, and the perinatal period brings many joys but also losses. It follows that during this period, more than any other time in her life, a woman is vulnerable to developing mental health difficulties. Despite this, the mental health and psychology workforce within the maternity services system is under-resourced, and the front-line workforce is under-supported and under-skilled with regard to identifying perinatal mental health issues.
Along with the need for mental health considerations to be embedded throughout the maternity and perinatal service system, the submission calls on the government to provide an accessible, high quality and safe maternity service system that has maternal (and infant) health and wellbeing at its core.
Women and families should have access to high quality, evidence-based models of maternity care that are women-centred and meet the health and wellbeing needs of all mothers, their babies and families, and protect and respect their human rights throughout their contact with maternity services, regardless of personal, cultural, ability, sexuality or geographic context.
Continuity of access and quality of care across the different stages of the maternity services system and access to multidisciplinary care are also singled out as important in the submission.
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