We wel­come the chance to share the exper­tise of our spe­cialised statewide ser­vices with col­leagues in rur­al and remote NSW.

Our statewide Peri­na­tal Post­mortem Ser­vice recent­ly hit the road to deliv­er new face-to-face train­ing for the Bro­ken Hill and Dub­bo mater­ni­ty units.

The ser­vice pro­vides com­pas­sion­ate sup­port and answers for fam­i­lies expe­ri­enc­ing the death of a baby short­ly before or after birth.

It helps hun­dreds of NSW fam­i­lies each year from 3 spe­cialised cen­tres at West­mead, Rand­wick and New­cas­tle, which for some, is a long way away at such a dif­fi­cult time.

Recog­nis­ing this, Fiona O’Shannessy, an expert mid­wife from our New­cas­tle ser­vice, is bring­ing face-to-face train­ing to mid­wives, doc­tors, and social work­ers at rur­al and region­al hos­pi­tal mater­ni­ty units.

“It was a valu­able oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet staff and build rela­tion­ships with the clin­i­cians who use our ser­vice,” Fiona said.

“Rur­al hos­pi­tals face dif­fer­ent chal­lenges than met­ro­pol­i­tan cen­tres, not the least of which is the dis­tances fam­i­lies must trav­el to access healthcare.

“When a preg­nan­cy ends in bereave­ment, these dis­tances cre­ate an addi­tion­al bur­den. Know­ing who to reach out to and how we can help dur­ing such chal­leng­ing times is reas­sur­ing for all involved.”

At Bro­ken Hill, Fiona worked with staff to devel­op resources and review pro­ce­dures, includ­ing trans­port to Children’s Hos­pi­tal West­mead. Although it was a busy day at the hos­pi­tal there was a fan­tas­tic turnout for both ses­sions, high­light­ing the com­mit­ment of the staff to ongo­ing learning.

At Dub­bo, Fiona pro­vid­ed edu­ca­tion to a large group of mid­wives empha­sis­ing the impor­tance of col­lab­o­ra­tion in pro­vid­ing the best care. Fiona also had the oppor­tu­ni­ty to meet senior staff, which allowed for fur­ther dis­cus­sions on improv­ing ser­vices. Fur­ther edu­ca­tion is planned via Teams to ensure all staff can ben­e­fit from these edu­ca­tion opportunities.

More vis­its to oth­er areas across NSW are planned for 2025 to improve sup­port for staff and fam­i­lies in rur­al com­mu­ni­ties. These vis­its pave the way for improved con­nec­tions and under­stand­ing with­in the health­care sys­tem of the peri­na­tal postmortem.

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