News

International recognition for antenatal program

Mon, 22 Feb 2016 07:42:00

An innovative program aimed at strengthening antenatal care for Indigenous families in the Mallee is drawing national and international attention.

The project, “Wondering from the womb: Antenatal yarning from bub’s perspective”, was developed by the Mallee District Aboriginal Service and will be presented at two major conferences later in the year.
The program’s developers, Kathy Crouch and Danielle Dougherty have been invited to speak at the 15th World Congress of the World Association for Infant Mental Health (WAIMH), Prague (Czech Republic) as well as the national Childhood Trauma Conference in Melbourne.
“Wondering from the womb” was developed as an extension to the award-winning MDAS Bumps to Babes and Beyond program, which was also showcased at the WAIMH World Congress in 2014.
MDAS Early Years Manager Danielle Dougherty said the resources and content of the new program continued the focus on helping vulnerable parents to establish strong relationships with their unborn child.
“Bumps to Babes and Beyond, which we now call the MDAS Early Years Program, began out of the realisation that we needed to revisit how we were addressing the needs of vulnerable parents and their babies,” Mrs Dougherty said.
“Perinatal death rates are 1.6 times higher for Aboriginal babies, and maternal mortality rates are five times higher for Aboriginal women.  Koori babies are twice as likely to be born with a low birth-weight,” she said.
“If we really wanted to change outcomes we realised that we needed to start well before childbirth and we needed to be innovative and more inclusive of cultural considerations.”
Early Years Lead Practitioner Kathy Crouch said a focus on “yarning” and its place in Koori culture was a key element in developing the program.
“Australia’s first people used ‘yarning’ to share wisdom, history, morality and social boundaries across the generations,” Ms Crouch said.
“It’s been an important element in strengthening antenatal care for Indigenous families already, but often it’s been shaped by adult perspectives,” she said.
“’Wondering from the womb’ extends that discussion to include the perspective of the yet-to-be-born child.
“We are finding that developing the capacity to listen to the voice of the child inside is really powerful in shaping how expecting family members can get to know their baby.”
Ms Dougherty said resources for the program that created discussion points for antenatal yarning were created with the input of an Indigenous advisory group.
“Each script is written as a message from bubs to their mother, family and community about their need for safety and curiosity about the world.”
Mrs Dougherty said positive indicators coming from the Early Years initiatives included improvement in the rates of women carrying their babies to full term, improved ante natal and Maternal and Child Health Service attendance, as well as increased breast feeding and immunisation rates.