Resources & Referrals > Health Categories > Maternal Health
Maternal Health
Depending on their country of origin, the concept of women’s health screening and perinatal care may be unfamiliar, and the rationale, benefits and processes thus may need to be explained with a professional interpreter to enable informed consent.
Many women from refugee-like backgrounds come from countries where there are high fertility rates and poor access to antenatal and prenatal care. The sense of loss experienced by women from refugee-like backgrounds may increase during pregnancy. Many women are distressed at not being able to follow their traditional cultural practices at this time, where supporting women through pregnancy and childbirth, and raising children is a shared responsibility.
Women who have a positive pregnancy test or who are planning pregnancy should be offered screening consistent with Australian antenatal care guidelines.
For more information, please read the Refugee Health Practice Guide.
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Referral
Caring Mums: Volunteer Support
Category: Maternal Health
Caring Mums is a free, confidential and non-judgemental program for new and expecting mums . It fills a need for women who may be seeking emotional support or connection, whether you’re entering motherhood for the first time or you already have children. With a trained volunteer by your side – who is an experienced mother herself – you will have the support you need during this exciting and challenging time.Visit
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Referral
Latrobe Regional Health: Agnes Unit – postnatal care
Category: Maternal Health
Becoming a parent can be challenging and at times, overwhelming. The Agnes Unit at LRH is a space for mums and infants under 12 months of age to get to know each other and strengthen their bond. It is a free early intervention program for people in Gippsland.Visit
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Referral
Latrobe Regional Health: Perinatal Emotional Health Program
Category: Maternal Health
Our perinatal program offers you a chance to talk about your difficulties in a safe, supportive environment. After a comprehensive assessment our clinicians provide counselling and support, information about emotional health and education and strategies about coping and managing stressful situations. We can also link you to other health and community services.Visit
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Southwest Healthcare: Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies Program
Category: Maternal Health
The Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies program is a free outreach service providing support to pregnant women in Warrnambool and district community. The aim of the service is to improve the health and wellbeing of both mothers, babies and their families by working together to find solutions to things that are worrying you.Visit
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Referral
WestWimmera Shire: Perinatal Emotional Health Program
Category: Maternal Health
Our Perinatal Emotional Health Practitioner (PEHP) offers free services, providing support with counselling strategies, referrals and education to help those in need.Visit
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Referral
Eastern Health: Perinatal Emotional Health Service (PEHS)
Category: Maternal Health
PEHS is a free service that provides perinatal mental health assessment and treatment and receives referrals for women from the time the pregnancy is confirmed up until baby turns one.Visit
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Referral
African Women’s Wellness Program
Category: Maternal Health
Western Health has developed an African Women’s Wellness Program for maternity care at Sunshine Hospital.Visit
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Referral
Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) – National Helpline
Category: Maternal Health
FIND SOMEONE TO TALK TO, MONDAY TO SATURDAY. 1300 726 306Visit
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Referral
Southwest Healthcare: Perinatal Emotional Health Program
Category: Maternal Health
The Perinatal Emotional Health Program (PEHP) is a voluntary program of South West Healthcare Mental Health and Wellbeing Services that provides family centred psychological care for women and or partners during pregnancy and up to one year post birth.Visit
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Resource
PANDA online mental health checklist
Category: Maternal Health
Many refugee women and women seeking asylum arrive in high-income countries with unmet preventive sexual and reproductive health (SRH) care needs. Primary healthcare providers (HCPs) are usually refugee and asylum seekers’ first point of care. This study aimed to identify HCP characteristics associated with initiating conversations and discussing SRH opportunistically during other health interactions.Access the multilingual checklist
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Resource
Free maternity resources for Health Professionals & Interpreters
Category: Maternal Health
The Stillbirth CRE is pleased to provide a suite of approved stillbirth prevention resources for use in the implementation and promotion of the Safer Baby Bundle. These evidence-based resources have been collaboratively designed for healthcare professionals and interpreters working with pregnant women. The Stillbirth CRE has partnered with the leading professional colleges and research institutions across Australia to develop these resources.Visit
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Partnering with families of refugee & migrant backgrounds
Category: Maternal Health
This course builds upon the established Safer Baby Bundle learning course to provide additional support to health professionals working with women and families of refugee and migrant backgrounds during pregnancy.Visit
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Resource
Growing a Healthy Baby: Culturally adapted resources
Category: Maternal Health
Safer Baby in-language resources for women, their families and healthcare teams to reduce the chance of stillbirth. Resources for Arabic, Dari, Dinka and Karen speaking communities (with English translations so healthcare professionals know what they are sharing). Click on the language below to access the PDF booklet, animation video and digital audio booklet.Visit
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Resource
Raising Children Network
Category: Maternal Health
raisingchildren.net.au provides ad-free parenting videos, articles and apps backed by Australian experts.Visit
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Resource
Perinatal Mental Health Video for Migrant and Refugee Women (English)
Category: Maternal Health
In this video, we talk with migrant and refugee women about their experiences of motherhood in Australia and what helped them feel more supported as a new parent.Visit
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Resource
Perinatal mental health videos in twenty one languages
Category: Maternal Health
Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health has developed videos about perinatal mental health in twenty one languages.Visit
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Resource
Growing a Healthy Baby Project
Category: Maternal Health
New in-language culturally adapted ‘Safer Baby Bundle’ resources: addressing high stillbirth rates through co-design.Visit
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Resource
Resource toolkit for refugee and migrant women accessing maternity services
Category: Maternal Health
This Toolkit aims to support health professionals to deliver timely, safe, quality and competent care for refugee and migrant women.Visit
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Resource
Perinatal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) – Support in different languages
Category: Maternal Health
Get the support you need with resources translated into 40 languages.Visit
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Publication
Trends and disparities in perinatal health outcomes among women from refugee backgrounds in Victoria, Australia: A population-based study (Yeshitila and Gold, 2024)
Category: Maternal Health
Women from refugee backgrounds generally experience poorer pregnancy-related outcomes compared to host populations. The article examines the trend and disparities in adverse perinatal outcomes among women of refugee background using population-based data from 2003 to 2017.Read
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Publication
Group Pregnancy Care for women of refugee background
Category: Maternal Health
Please find the 'Formative Evaluation: Executive Summary' of Group Pregnancy Care for women of refugee background.View Document
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Publication
A photovoice study exploring what culturally safe pregnancy care is to Karen women of refugee background in Victoria, Australia
Category: Maternal Health
A photovoice study founded on community-based participatory research principles was undertaken with a Karen community of refugee background living in Victoria, Australia. A community advisory group was established, guiding study design and conduct. Five S’gaw Karen-speaking women with experience of pregnancy care in Australia were invited to take photos within their community. Participants shared their photos and stories with each other in four online discussion groups.Visit
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Publication
Cultural safety and belonging for refugee background women attending group pregnancy care: An Australian qualitative study
Category: Maternal Health
Refugee women experience higher incidence of childbirth complications and poor pregnancy outcomes. Resettled refugee women often face multiple barriers accessing pregnancy care and navigating health systems in high income countries. A community-based model of group pregnancy care for Karen women from Burma was co-designed by health services in consultation with Karen families in Melbourne, Australia.View Document
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Finding our own ways of working together: reflections on implementing and facilitating a multidisciplinary and equity-orientated model of Group Pregnancy Care for women of refugee background.
Category: Maternal Health
This paper explores professional staff experiences of implementing and facilitating a multidisciplinary equity-oriented model of Group Pregnancy Care for women of refugee background. This model was the first of its kind in Australia and one of the first worldwide.View Document
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Publication
Trauma-Informed Care and Equity in Group Pregnancy Care for Women in Refugee Background: Reflections from the workforce.
Category: Maternal Health
For women and families of refugee background having a baby in Australia, trauma-related experiences contribute to maternal and neonatal health inequities. Group Pregnancy Care for women of refugee background is a new model of care that was codesigned with communities of refugee background, to incorporate a trauma-informed approach to care. The aim of this paper is to explore how trauma-informed care is understood by Group Pregnancy Care professional staff.View Document