Auxiliary luncheon highlights importance of maternity care

Young Hospital Auxiliary has used its annual luncheon to highlight the importance of local maternity care and the need to keep rural families close to home. The Auxiliary held its Luncheon and Guest Speaker event at Young Golf Club on Sunday, with April Strong, Manager of the Maternity Department at Young Hospital, speaking to guests about maternity services and the value of babies being born locally. Ms Strong trained as a nurse through Charles Sturt University before completing postgraduate midwifery training while working at Young Hospital. She has now worked at the hospital for 11 years. She said the key message of the day was rural maternity care and supporting families close to home. Young Hospital operates under a shared care model, with GPs and midwives working together to support local families. “We operate under a shared care model here, which is as close as you can get to continuity of care,” Ms Strong said. “We work with our GPs and our midwives, and we’re very lucky to have that model.” Young Hospital continues to deliver a significant number of babies each year, with Ms Strong saying the maternity department is averaging about 120 to 130 births annually. She said birth numbers had fluctuated in recent years, but the hospital was currently tracking towards that range again this year. “Which is good,” Ms Strong said. “We want to keep the numbers up.” Ms Strong said Young Hospital’s maternity service had changed over the years, including the move from paper-based records to computer systems, as well as changes around transfer rates and criteria for higher-risk births. As a low-risk hospital, some mothers may be transferred or plan to birth elsewhere when additional support is needed, but Ms Strong said Young continued to provide an important local service for families. She said updated equipment, good resources and a supportive environment helped both patients and staff. “You want staff to have a comfortable, updated environment to work in, with good resources and the knowledge that they have backup,” she said. Ms Strong said working in a small hospital could be daunting for staff who were used to larger facilities with more immediate resources, making support and confidence especially important. Young Hospital Auxiliary President Janice Ward said the group was proud to have Ms Strong speak at the luncheon. “April trained at Young, and we are very proud of her,” Ms Ward said. “We are very keen on maternity.” Ms Ward said the Auxiliary supported many areas of Young Hospital, but maternity care was a service members were particularly passionate about. “We do support many areas of the hospital, but we do spend quite a bit of money in maternity,” she said. “Babies being born in Young is so important because mothers and babies are here for the parents, grandparents and family to visit, rather than the mother being separated somewhere else.” Ms Ward said maintaining local maternity care was about more than convenience for families. It was also important for keeping skilled staff in the region and ensuring Young Hospital had the equipment needed to provide modern care. “If we’ve got the staff — the nursing staff as well as the doctors — and we add extra equipment, then we’re in good shape,” she said. “Staff who want modern equipment and who can do modern things can come here, and they encourage others to apply for jobs. Next thing, you’ve got a really vibrant staff.” The Auxiliary is currently supporting the maternity department with the purchase of a specialised birthing bed, after the hospital asked the group to contribute towards the equipment. Ms Ward said the need for updated equipment showed how important ongoing community fundraising remained. Ms Strong said the Auxiliary’s support made a real difference to the maternity department. “I think they’re a bit undervalued sometimes, but they do so much for us,” she said. Ms Ward said keeping maternity services active in Young was vital for the future of the hospital and the wider community. “If we don’t keep having babies here, we could possibly be under threat, like some other hospitals that have been under threat of losing their maternity units,” she said. “We don’t want that.” Ms Ward also said services such as pathology were vital to keeping maternity care available locally. “If we don’t have pathology, we can’t have babies here,” she said. The luncheon attracted strong support from the community, with more than 70 people booked to attend. The event continued the Auxiliary’s long tradition of fundraising and practical support for Young Hospital, while also giving the community a chance to hear directly from one of the people leading maternity care in Young. For both the Auxiliary and the maternity team, the message was clear: local maternity services matter not only for mothers and babies, but for families, hospital staff and the future of healthcare in Young.