{"id":53069,"date":"2013-12-12T02:52:21","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T16:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=53069"},"modified":"2020-12-07T14:23:17","modified_gmt":"2020-12-07T04:23:17","slug":"young-mums-have-a-say","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2013\/12\/12\/young-mums-have-a-say\/","title":{"rendered":"Young Mums Have A Say"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service South Burnett Cluster Manager Peta Rutherford with Kingaroy Hospital Nurse Unit Manager Stacey Smith<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

December 12, 2013<\/strong><\/p>\n

A group of young mothers – and their babies and toddlers – gathered at the Kingaroy RSL Club this week to share their experiences about giving birth at Kingaroy Hospital.<\/p>\n

The Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service arranged the afternoon tea to gather feedback on past and current maternity services at the hospital and to help shape the future direction of ante-natal, birthing and post-natal services across the South Burnett.<\/p>\n

Beaudesert Hospital Nursing and Midwifery Director Hazel Brittain explained the possible models of care which could be offered to birthing mothers, ranging from fully private obstetricians, to combined GP\/midwife teams, \u00a0fully private midwives (who would be granted access to hospital facilities), Group Practice midwives or Team midwives.<\/p>\n

Under the Group Practice model, there is about an 80 per cent chance that the same midwife would provide care from before birth through to ante-natal care. Patients would be referred to a medical officer if required.<\/p>\n

Under the Team model, there is about a 50 per cent rate of continuity; but under this model there is less impact on the midwives (they don’t always have to be on call).<\/p>\n

A mixed Team \/ Group Practice model of midwifery currently exists at Mareeba and Emerald hospitals, and is being introduced at Beaudesert.<\/p>\n

This could be one of the preferred options for future midwifery services at Kingaroy Hospital.<\/p>\n

Darling Downs Hospital and Health Service South Burnett Cluster Manager Peta Rutherford said this was the first time mothers in the South Burnett had been consulted about what services they wanted.<\/p>\n

“But this is just the start of the conversation, there will be more opportunities to have a say,” she said.<\/p>\n

She said Kingaroy Hospital was the busiest non-specialist birthing service in Queensland, servicing an area of about 35,000 people with about 420 births per year.<\/p>\n

Nurse Unit Manager Stacey Smith said there were currently 14.5 full-time equivalent midwives based at Kingaroy Hospital.<\/p>\n

There were no fully private midwives based in the region.<\/p>\n