“In remote Far North Queensland, evacuation for mandatory hospital births saves lives. However, morbidity and mortality for mothers and infants remain high. Results from a retrospective study of deliveries over a one-year period showed significant differences in obstetric risk and outcomes among rural and urban Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Caucasian women.”
The findings of the study will not come as a surprise, poor health and poor outcomes are commoner in aboriginal women, whilst living remote from the Cairns or Thursday Island hospitals increases the risk of still birth in all groups.
It is my understanding that a pregnant woman from, say the Lockhart River community, is obliged to travel to Cairns at 26 weeks gestation and remain there until returning home with her new baby. In FNQ and other remote areas of Australia there are outreach programs and cultural support services that endeavour to raise the standard of medical care and reduce the burden of being away from home and family during this time.
The baby will be one of more than 2700 babies born at the Cairns Base Hospital in any year, a busy labour ward and a busy nursery. Chances are that at any one time there will be little aboriginal babies and little white babies in adjacent cribs. The notion that some of these babies owe the others an apology is ridiculous and unhelpful. The better notion is that they all stand equal before the constitution and all have a fair crack at a decent education and a fair go in life.
bobmcgee 