Connecting, listening and responding: A Blueprint for Action – Maternity Care in NSW

NSW Health has developed Connecting, Listening and Responding: A Blueprint for Action – Maternity Care in NSW. The blueprint builds on the previous NSW Health policy directive Towards Normal Birth in NSW (PD2010_045) which has now been rescinded.

What is the blueprint’s purpose?

The blueprint’s vision is that ‘all women in NSW receive respectful, evidence-based and equitable maternity care that improves experiences and health and wellbeing outcomes’.

The blueprint aims to strengthen maternity care services to ensure they are collaborative, equitable and woman-centred, while acknowledging and striving to address the contemporary organisational challenges for maternity care in NSW.

The blueprint is supported by 10 goals.

1. Women receive maternity care that is socially and culturally respectful.
2. Women’s views actively inform improvements to maternity care.
3. Women have enough information before conception to optimise their health, pregnancy experience and outcomes.
4. Women are connected to information and care early in pregnancy.
5. Antenatal care reflects the individual preferences and needs of women, babies and families.
6. Women are offered different care options, are actively involved in decision-making about their care and their choices are respected.
7. Women with additional needs during pregnancy are connected to appropriate services.
8. Women are informed of the possible outcomes of all aspects of care during labour and birth.
9. Women receive safe, high quality, evidence-based care that is appropriate to their individual needs and expectations.
10. Women are connected to the care and support they need after birth.

The blueprint has been developed in line with:

• NSW Health’s First 2000 Days Framework
• First 2000 Days Implementation Strategy 2020-2025
• Woman-centred care: Strategic directions for Australian maternity services
• NSW Future Health: Guiding the next decade of care in NSW 2022-2032
• NSW Closing the Gap Implementation Plan 2022-2024.

How was the blueprint developed?

A project reference group was established to provide specialist clinical, strategic and contextual advice to review Towards Normal Birth in NSW and develop the blueprint. The reference group included consumers, maternity service managers and senior obstetric, midwifery and social work clinicians (nominated by local health districts), general practitioners and representatives from Aboriginal and culturally and linguistically diverse communities.

Extensive consultation has been undertaken to inform the revision of Towards Normal Birth in NSW and the development of the blueprint. This involved a public and targeted consultation process including:

• two online consumer surveys (for women and partners) to understand what is important to maternity care consumers. These surveys had over 18,000 responses received. 
  
• a series of engagement workshops conducted across NSW with health professionals and consumers. Over 1,000 key stakeholders participated in these face-to-face consultations. The objective of the workshops was to understand how the blueprint can support high quality maternity care.
• the draft blueprint was open for public consultation where 513 submissions were received
• a final round of consultation with consumers, professional peak bodies, the Aboriginal Health and Medical Research Council of NSW (AH&MRC), local health districts and speciality health networks
• discussion and feedback at all stages of consultation has informed the blueprint.

What are the next steps?

NSW Ministry of Health will collaborate with key stakeholders, including consumers, to develop an implementation plan.

Local health districts and speciality health networks will:

• promote and utilise the blueprint for ongoing system reform and service redesign to strengthen maternity care across NSW including preconception, antenatal, labour, birth, postnatal care and transition to the community
• promote the use of the blueprint to inform direction and local actions to ensure all women in NSW receive respectful, evidence-based and equitable maternity care that improves experiences and health and wellbeing outcomes
• provide input to the NSW Health implementation plan and to support local implementation of the goals, objectives and actions documented in the blueprint.