Birthing on Country: Significances and Consequences

Running head: BIRTHING ON COUNTRY: SIGNIFICANCES AND CONSEQUENSES
BIRTHING ON COUNTRY: SIGNIFICANCES AND CONSEQUENSES
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1BIRTHING ON COUNTRY: SIGNIFICANCES AND CONSEQUENSES
This essay aims at addressing the effect of Birthing on Country, the differences in
foetal and child-care among indigenous and non-indigenous communities of Australia and the
role of midwifery practices in controlling this dire situation. Over the years, there has a
greater disparity between the communities consisting of Indigenous Australians and Non –
Indigenous Australians. In general, nativity in Australia does not affect maternal depression.
Differences in regimes of immigration as well as welfare system are the reasons affecting the
mental status of pregnant mothers (Martinson & Tienda, 2016). As a result, this long-term
disparity has an effect on the midwifery techniques including the health of newborn babies
and foetal health care. Australia has experienced 41 % decline in issues related to maternity
services in addition to 47% upsurge in births which were unplanned, out-of hospital births
(Kildea et al ,2016). Unequivocal relationships often exist between poor clinical services as
well as distanced maternity services. Various organisations have come up providing training
programmes to nurses and midwifery practitioners. The following paragraphs will encompass
the various cases of maternal and new-borns being taken care of and the role of power
relations in curbing the issues of maternal health care in nations like Australia.
The term midwifery refers to the knowledgeable, skilled as well as compassionate
care given to pregnant or childbearing women, families including members like pregnant
women, newborn infants having members during pre-pregnancy, pregnancy along with birth,
post- partam and the first few weeks of life. The basic characteristics include optimisation of
social psychological as well as cultural processes of early-life succeeding reproduction. Time
management and prevention of the complications inclusive of the referral and consultation of
services are important as well (Renfrew et al ,2014 ). A three round survey was carried out
for finding the types of profession standards including training, maintenance and competency
skills among various mid-wife practitioners according to the Delphi method of survey
(Walker et al.,2015). The results of the survey revealed that overall midwifes were

2BIRTHING ON COUNTRY: SIGNIFICANCES AND CONSEQUENSES
competent, had a vast sphere of knowledge and could follow the aforementioned instructions
according to the internal guidelines of the programme but for a perfect performance, nurses
should have an increased skills and knowledge which would come with experience.
According to the available regulations and policies of the Australian requirements, some of
the factors affecting scope of the practitioner are inclusive of clinical, educational experience
and competence ultimately leading to endorsement. Moreover, midwife practitioners and
nurses are affected by jurisdictional restrictions in the context of clinical practice measures
and it is a hindrance to the nurse’s scopes of practice (Scanlon et al ,2016). The basic purpose
of implementation of guidelines for nursing is used for defining the basic parameters of care,
which might be influenced by the accepted standards followed for the midwife’s professional
organisations. Guidelines include state regulations, laws, bylaws of the involved hospital,
contracts for health insurance as well as for liabilities and insurance policies. Establishment
of a therapeutic relationship is pivotal for the care of patients . Listening skills, clarifying the
issues and providing a pragmatic solution are some of the basic principles to be followed for
midwifery practitioners. The given research article describes the steps taken for midwifery
practices through the Birthing On Country programme which is supported by the people of
Indigenous Australian communities. Moreover the establishment of hospitals in Brisbane and
Murri are services providing care for postnatal and antenatal care. Preterm births in
Australia are managed by a group of midwife nurses providing social support and early health
which has a positive effect regarding birth outcomes. Thus the professional standards of mid-
wifery in Australia are well-justified.
In Australia, 52% of women who give birth or are pregnant live outside in the
suburban areas of Australia (Bar Zeev,2014). There is a distinct difference between original
and aboriginal women in terms of pregnancy and birth outcomes. Various reasons have been
accounted for such differences for example, smoking during months of pregnancy, or