SOUTH CROSS UNIVERSITY SECURE GRANT FOR BIRTHING ON COUNTRY PROGRAM
Dr Marilyn Clarke. Credit: Supplied.
Southern Cross University has secured a $3.5 million grant to collaborate with with three Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation to create an innovative program for Birthing on Country.
The Department of Health and Aged Care granted the funds.
The project will be led by Professor Gillian Gould and Australia’s first Aboriginal Obstetrics and Gynecology specialist, Dr Marilyn Clarke, who work at Southern Cross University.
In remote Aboriginal communities, most pregnant woman have to leave their family and community to travel hundreds of kilometres to a hospital in a metro area where they may not have been before.
Dr Marilyn Clarke said the program’s plans to put Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander midwives on placement in the communities.
“In that way, women can receive a lot of their antenatal care on country in their own communities by their own Aboriginal and Torres Strait midwives, which I think would be a fantastic outcome and really minimize how much they need to then travel away from their own community for any antenatal care,” she said.
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