Key Points
A Rebecca White Labor Government will provide $5m/pa for dedicated mother baby support services across the state.
Currently Tasmania is the only state without mother baby beds.
Labor’s plan will:
- Provide 10 Mother Baby beds around the state – in the North West, North and South
- Establish community day programs and residential services for families
- Support a Perinatal Mental Health Centre for public patients in Hobart
- Continue a review of Maternity Services statewide.
Why we need it
As many as one in five mothers, or around 1,152 Tasmanian mothers a year, experience perinatal depression and anxiety.
The closure of the Mother and Baby Unit at the St Helen’s Private Hospital has left Tasmania with a dire shortage of available beds for mothers requiring support and care.
A reduction to only 3 public mother and baby beds in Hobart is not sufficient to care for babies and their parents. The service at RHH is currently overwhelmed with referrals.
They also do not help families living in north and north-western parts of Tasmania.
The details
Labor would establish 10 public Mother Baby Beds around the state. Two in the North West, four in the North and four in the South.
Labor would support the establishment of a public Perinatal Mental Health Centre for public patients to access without referrals in Hobart.
We would also provide small, dedicated community day program and residential stay services for families experiencing perinatal exhaustion, feeding/settling difficulties and postnatal depression/anxiety in Tasmania.
The service would be staffed primarily by specialised nurses with support from general practitioners and liaison with paediatric and psychiatric services if required. This would be in addition to the ongoing hospital-based psychiatric beds at the RHH which can be used for high complexity psychiatric admissions involving infant care.