Rural women face huge journeys to access maternity care, inquiry hears

But even for rural women who are fortunate enough to give birth to healthy babies, the experience can be stressful and potentially traumatic due to the lack of maternity services nearby.

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Alison Pearson, Cobar gave evidence at the parliamentary inquiry into health outcomes and access to health services in rural, regional and remote NSW last month.

Ms Pearson spoke of her experience with maternity and obstetrics services for women in her area, having given birth to her son, Hunter, in October 2020.

There are no longer maternity units in Cobar or Bourke and most women must make the 300 kilometre journey from Cobar to Dubbo to have their babies.

For many this means leaving home, and in some cases their family and children, two weeks prior to their due date.

As Ms Pearson had a possible complication with her pregnancy she went to Orange under doctors orders close to six weeks before Hunter was due.

Prior to this she had been travelling the 860km round trip regularly for check ups and routine testing, taking days off work to undertake the journey.

"We have a great midwife who comes out to Cobar but she is only available on certain days and we can't do all the tests and ultrasounds at home," Ms Pearson said.

"I have received nothing but professional, supportive care out here, they just don't have all the tools to provide what's required."

More worrying is something going wrong when you are far from help. Ms Pearson said early on in her pregnancy she experienced a bout of bleeding and presented to the Cobar hospital.

"We don't have the ability to do ultrasounds in Cobar so they referred me to Bourke, an hour and a half away, but they were booked out," Ms Pearson said.

"They said I could go over there and wait all day and they would try and squeeze me in."

When she was eventually able to be seen Ms Pearson was told it was likely that she had had a miscarriage, but was referred to Dubbo or Orange in two weeks time to check.

"We got stuck in floodwaters on the way home, I was still bleeding, wondering whether I was still having a baby," Ms Pearson said.

Fortunately, the news was not what they had feared when she eventually got to Orange weeks later.

But, after Hunter was born they experienced another scare when he became ill and his breathing rates dropped.

Luckily, they were staying in Trangie and were referred by Narromine GPS to Dubbo, but Ms Pearson said she was told on arrival if they had been in Cobar they would have had to have been flown out.

Ms Pearson said she wanted to tell her story because it mirrored the experience of many women living in her region.

"It's unnecessary stress," she said.

"With maternity and obstetrics we're not talking about obscure diseases, we're talking about everyday care.

"I had some things pop up that weren't the norm, but in the end I had a healthy, normal pregnancy and birth."

Ms Pearson said she understood a maternity ward in Cobar was a big ask but argued there should be services closer.

"Maternity care basically stops halfway across the state, at Dubbo," she said.

"People out here are more likely to have issues or be put at risk because of those transit times."

As to the argument that "you choose where you live," Ms Pearson asked why should her choice to live in a town that contributes to the region and country through mining, agriculture and infrastructure, give her less rights to basic health care than someone in a large town or city?

"Why should my location mean I must wait to learn the fate of my pregnancy or possibly face losing my child to a common virus in transit to services?" she told the hearing.

The inquiry into regional and remote health is continuing with the next hearings scheduled for Gunnedah and Lismore on June 16 and 17.

The committee trialed live-streaming of last week's hearings at Wellington and Dubbo.

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