Summary of the Victorian Refugee Health Network’s (the Network) focus on Maternity:
- Bridging the Gap: Partnerships for Change (2013-18)
- Having a Baby in a New Country (2012-13)
- Partnership with Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (est. 2012)
- Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies (2010-11)
- Graduates’ Project (2010)
Bridging the Gap: Partnerships for change in refugee child and family health (2013-18)
Bridging the Gap is a partnership program that brings together health service clinicians and managers, policy makers and researchers to bring about sustainable improvements in the quality of maternity and early childhood health care to improve health and health care outcomes for families of refugee background. Quality improvement projects are being implemented in four maternity hospitals (Western Health and Monash Health) and two local government maternal and child health services (Cities of Wyndham and Greater Dandenong) with evaluation of process and outcomes occurring concurrently. The Victorian Foundation for Survivors of Torture, the Network’s auspicing agency, is a major partner in Bridging the Gap. For further information visit the project page on the Murdoch Childrens Research Institutes Website: https://www.mcri.edu.au/research/projects/bridging-gap-partnerships-change-refugee-child-and-family-health
Having a baby in a new country (2012-13)
This research was conducted in 2012 with Afghan families in south-east Melbourne. South-east Melbourne was selected as a geographical area to focus on partly in response to the Southern Academic Primary Care Research Unit’s (SAPCRU) report An evaluation of the primary healthcare needs of refugees in south east metropolitan Melbourne, which demonstrated disparities in maternity outcomes for women of refugee backgrounds. The Having a baby in a new country project was undertaken to address the gap in available evidence about how women and men of refugee-background experience health services during pregnancy, birth and in the first months following birth. The full report is available HERE
Partnership with Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (est 2012)
The Network conducted a maternity literature review in 2011 and developed a briefing for a project looking at women and men from refugee backgrounds experiences of maternity services. At the same time the Network was building a case for focused work in this area, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute Healthy Mothers Healthy Families research group approached the Network’s auspicing agency to explore the possibility of a partnership to conduct research focusing on women and men from refugee backgrounds’ experience of maternity services. The partnership was established in 2012 and currently has a number of active project.
Graduates’ Project (2010)
In 2010 the Victorian Refugee Health Network provided supervision to Victorian Public Service Graduates at the then Department of Human Services to complete a report Maternity Care Provision for Women from Refugee Background in Victoria. This document was developed to inform the work of the Network, it identified disparities in access and outcomes for women of refugee backgrounds identifying the need for further focused work in making maternity care more accessible.
Health Mothers Health Babies (2010)
In 2010 the Network also commenced providing support to four projects funded under the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Innovative Grants scheme which focused on engaging mothers from refugee backgrounds. The four services complete the following projects:
- Western Region Health Centre: Healthy Mums, Healthy Kids at River Nile Learning Centre
- Eastern Access Community Health: Identifying the needs of women of refugee backgrounds regarding prenatal and postnatal care in the outer east
- Ballarat Community Health Service: Peer education in Ballarat
- Southern Health: Services for Healthy Mothers Health Babies across Casey, Cardinia, and Greater Dandenong
Further reading
For refugee health related maternity and/or maternal and child health resources visit:
- our maternal and child health resource library
- our maternity resource library
- our searchable Library.
