Regional women share postpartum journeys to bring about change

Regional women are speaking out about the challenges they face in accessing postpartum care, with many forced to travel long distances for essential services. A charity founded by local mothers aims to bring about change by sharing their stories and making submissions to a Senate inquiry.

Taegan Partington, founder of the charity, said she experienced firsthand the difficulties of accessing postpartum care in regional South Australia. "We ended up moving home [from Adelaide] for more support from family, but found the services that I still required needed me to travel back to Adelaide," she said.

Ms Partington's experience was not unique, and she soon realized that many other women in the region were facing similar challenges. She and pelvic health physiotherapist Sarah Coshan organized a forum to discuss the issues and gather submissions for the Senate Select Committee on Women's Health.

"We were hearing these stories over and over again of people's motherhood journey being really marred by the services they could attain here, and what they had to travel for or were just missing out on," Ms Partington said. "It's not just the travel factor and the finances, but being a mother with young children and what travel actually looks like is sometimes completely unachievable."

Ms Coshan said that the obstacles to care extended even to her own service provision. "Part of anyone's submission could be that they didn't receive postpartum physiotherapy and I had to go and privately seek it," she said. "I hear a lot about the financial toll of physiotherapy and lactation support postpartum, and this inquiry is looking also at fertility, women's pain and medical devices as well, all of which I've seen come through my doors."

The forum included a video call with Senator Marielle Smith, chair of the Select Committee on Women's Health. Senator Smith's own experience with postpartum care challenges inspired her to establish the inquiry.

"Senator Smith's own experience mirrors a lot of women's experiences," Ms Partington said. "Unfortunately, I am probably hearing more stories of women in our community not feeling empowered by their birth, so they start on the back foot. Then they are launched into a postpartum journey that is marred by lots of obstacles."

Submissions to the select committee close on October 9, with the committee's final report due next August. Ms Coshan encouraged women to share their stories, saying "You are important, your story matters, your voice matters. If you have the capacity to share, then that could help change things for future women."