Australia’s maternity crisis is an ongoing issue as research reveals that up to one in three Australian women have experienced birth trauma.
In Australia’s regional areas, there is an increasing rate of maternity crisis due to the collapse of rural hospitals and a lack of specialist obstetricians.
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Pregnant women are forced to travel hours to seek healthcare, taking the risk of giving birth on the side of the road.
On Today’s The Briefing, co-hosts Katrina Blowers and Jan Fran interviewed Sophie Walker, the founder of the Australian Birth Stories Podcast, taking a deep dive into the country’s maternity crisis.
“I started the podcast after I had my second son, and I had a really challenging first birth, and I’d consider it traumatic. So I fell into that category of one in three Australian women that have a traumatic birth,” Sophie said.
Sophie said it could also be traumatic for a partner to witness their loved one giving birth to their child.
“I know for my husband, he went and was crying in the other room, and thought in my first son’s birth that my son was going to die because he came out not breathing,” Sophie said.