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builds on the previous NSW Health policy directive Towards Normal Birth in NSW (PD2010_045) which has now been rescinded.
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.
The blueprint has been developed in line with:
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:
NSW Ministry of Health will collaborate with key stakeholders, including consumers, to develop an implementation plan.
Local health districts and speciality health networks will: