August 2025: A Chief Midwife role has been announced meaning, for the first time in NSW, a leader in midwifery will drive better policies and practises for midwives which will ultimately benefit mothers and babies. Our push for a focus on midwifery-led maternity care paid off!

This success reflects the power of women’s and midwives stories, leadership by midwifery organisations, and the NSW Government listening. Read more here…

June 2025: More than half of the $83.18million investment into maternity care in NSW will go to continuity of midwifery care as announced by the NSW Government. A further $21.9 million for the Aboriginal Families First 2,000 Days package to provide culturally responsive care during pregnancy and the first five years of life.

This is a HUGE win for families across NSW. Investment of this scale will hopefully significantly prevent birth trauma. We made a submission to the Government for the NSW Budget 2025 and clearly highlighted the need for financial investment into the most preventable measure to birth trauma. Endorsed by a range of organisations, today’s outcome has been a combination of truth from women, lobbying by groups like our and listening by the NSW Government, in particular, the NSW Health Minister, Ryan Park.

In short, the funding will cover the following:

$44.8 million to increase access to midwifery continuity of care models, including an additional 53 full-time equivalent midwives in regional NSW

• enhanced training for clinicians in respectful maternity care

• enhanced antenatal education and consumer information for patients

• $26.8 million to maintain seven family care centres, five mobile services and the Macksville residential unit, all in regional and rural NSW

• $5.7 million to support free vaccination to pregnant women to protect them and their babies from whooping cough, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus infection

• $250,000 for virtual paediatrician support to general practitioners across NSW.

After nine years of tireless advocacy and persistence Better Births Illawarra have achieved a massive win and finally expanded the Midwifery Group Practice in Wollongong and Shoalhaven hospitals including:.

The first ever MGP at Shoalhaven hospital with four midwives in an all-risk model.

Wollongong hospital has expanded by five new midwives and is moving from a low-risk model to an all-risk, no-exit model.

The Wollongong MGP expansion means more than 300 women and birthing parents will have access to this model of care - almost doubling the current number. The Shoalhaven will have an MGP for the first time with four midwives.

Better Births Illawarra formed because we saw the vast difference in birth experience and outcomes for mothers and babies between women in the fragmented hospital care and women and birthing parents being cared for by a known midwife through pregnancy, birth and postpartum. We formed as a group to increase access to what is known as Midwifery Group Practice.

A MASSIVE win!

On November 1st, we saw one of the biggest wins for birth choice—one we could barely have imagined just months ago!

This major milestone simply wouldn’t have been possible without the fierce dedication and advocacy of mothers, midwives, and supporters of homebirth and birth choices.

Our impact is huge. The government scrapped restrictive “low-risk” definitions for homebirth midwives. Now, as long as midwives follow NMBA’s Safety and Quality Guidelines, they will be insured for intrapartum homebirth services—a massive step toward safer, more accessible birthing options.

How did we get here? We joined a coalition of organisations, led by Homebirth Australia where 6,000 women filled out surveys, more than 1200 sent emails to their local member of parliament and dozens met with their local Federal MPs.

Better Births Illawarra, alongside thousands of women and organisations, helped drive this change. Our collective voices sent surveys, emails, and met with MPs—and the government listened. This is people power in action, but our work isn’t over. We’ll keep fighting to protect birth choices and ensure real, lasting change for families and providers.

Since March 2023, Better Births Illawarra (BBI) has led a transformative campaign during the NSW Parliamentary Inquiry into Birth Trauma. Our efforts contributed to a record-breaking 4,200 submissions, the highest in NSW Inquiry history. We provided testimony at public hearings and supported women in sharing their experiences in Wollongong and Sydney.

Media - Our advocacy efforts resulted in being published in more than 50 media pieces, amplifying the voices of women and families from local papers to international headlines.

On August 28th, NSW Health Minister Ryan Park publicly apologized to women harmed by the maternity care system, acknowledging the distressing and avoidable nature of many birth traumas.

The government supported 42 of the 43 recommendations in the Birth Trauma Report which included thirteen of the Recommendations made by BBI and other organsiations in a joint final submission reflecting the impact of our collective advocacy.

BBI's President, Sharon Settecasse, emphasised the urgency of immediate action, stating, "These mothers and their babies deserve immediate action." The Guardian. Our work underscores the power of community, especially women driving change from the ground up and strategic political influencing.

Read more…

In 2018, our successful political lobbying resulted in a refurbishment of Wollongong hospital suites. The $2.2 million dollar upgrade was the start. We participated as consumer representatives in the co-design of the suites, connecting researchers with the construction manager The result is a state-of the-art environment including birthing baths, dangle, warm colour palette, hidden medical equipment, dimmable lights, double-headed showers, two large mural photos in two birth suites amongst other improvement.

After parents sharing stories of being separated from their baby after birthing via Caesarean section, BBI wanted to understand how widespread this issue was. What we discovered was separating a mother from their baby straight after birth was routine.

Our survey found that 89 per cent of 200 women who underwent caesareans at Wollongong Hospital said they had been separated from their newborns during recovery – mostly without explanation.

Many said they had been separated for longer than two hours and 90 per cent said they were anxious and stressed as a result. One in five reported being diagnosed with postnatal depression.

After facilitating a community meeting with hospital executives, the distress prompted change at Wollongong hospital.

Health experts recommend skin-to-skin contact due to its benefits for bonding and breastfeeding. The benefits of the “golden hour” is crucial for the establishment of breastfeeding, regulating heartbeat and co-regulation.

Our community research aprompted the hospital to review its ‘skin-to-skin’ policy and advertise for a caesarean section midwife.

We represent the community voice in a number of forums, acting as consumer representatives on the Project 2020 initiative for the Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District (ISLHD), and instigated the Wollongong Hospital birth unit redesign project working group. we have monthly update meeting with senior executives of the Wollongong Hospital.

To ensure community needs are met, we contribute to workshops which community members participate in, such as a workshop for bereaved parents and forums for local parents to contribute to plans for the birth unit redesign. 

We also established a consumer reference group, which was appointed by the hospital to consult with the maternity change group, meeting monthly to allow community members to feed directly into plans for changes to the maternity services at Wollongong Hospital. We are currently coordinating a Maternity Steering Group since the Inquiry into Birth Trauma.

When we first started BBI, Wollongong Hospital did not offer any birth props for women to use for an active labour which has proven results in shorter, less painful labour and higher rates of vaginal birth.

Whilst we successfully advocated for the two state-of-the-art birth pools in the hospitals and double-headed showers, women wanted to have access to props.

Affordable items such as birth balls, mats, stools and beanbags have been proven to be effective in assisting with normal physiological birth.

After 18 months of ongoing pressure the health service purchased the props and implemented a staff training programme, to ensure these props are now offered and used correctly with labouring women.

Currently, battery operated candles, and birth affirmation cards are also available to create an optimal birth environment.

BBI has been a founding member of the Maternity Services Alliance (MSA), a group of community members (known as consumers), midwives, and academics. We are a unique group of organisations within Australia that come together to advocate for positive change within national maternity services.

We made a joint submission to the Birth Trauma Inquiry and a key priority in our work has been to raise awareness amongst the public on the benefits of midwifery-led care. e We collaborated to design an educational postcard for distribution in the community and used it as a basis to lobby at state and federal level around the importance of investing in midwives which has know to improve the experience and outcomes of birth for the mother and baby.

The MSA consists of the Australian College of Midwives, Country Women’s Association of NSW, Waminda South Coast Women’s Health and Wellbeing Aboriginal Corporation, NSW Nurses and Midwives’ Association, Better Births Illawarra, Maternity Choices Australia and leading midwifery academics in NSW.