🚩 Dad Alastair knows that insufficient Maternal Mental Health care produces tragic outcomes. Maternal suicide is still the single largest cause of maternal death in New Zealand with an average of 10 women dying by suicide each year. Maori and Pasifika are over-represented in these devastating statistics.
🚩 Midwife Jessy believes New Zealand's birthing system is broken. We urge the Government to create ring-fenced funding that allows parents to access funds that meet their perinatal needs and choices.
🚩 Larissa is one of the 1/7 women who suffer from post-natal depression in New Zealand. We urge the Government to implement action that gives families access to services that meet their needs and choices throughout the whole perinatal period. Regular screening by trained health professionals is urgently needed with support to match the needs that arise.
🚩 Obstetric Anaesthetist, Dr Morgan Edwards argues birthing women deserve better. Women are missing out on access to birthing services across their perinatal period that meets their needs and choices. Lack of access to primary birthing units, LMCs, maternal mental health support, physiotherapy and antenatal education is causing huge distress to so many birthing whanau. We believe women are not having their health rights met. We urge the government to take urgent action to address these issues.
🚩 Mama Jessica nearly died from birth-related injuries, ACC changes must be altered to ensure Jessica and countless other Mamas birth injuries (inclusive of mental harm) are covered under ACC. We urge the government to allow any changes to cover retrospective cases. 1/3 of women will leak after childbirth. 47% of Maori women will leak for life. ​
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60-85 per cent of women suffer some form of perineal tearing while giving birth.
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In 2020 ACC received 1145 treatment injury claims related to maternity and the birth process.
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38% of the claims were not accepted. Of those that were, 382 were accepted under the perineal damage/injury/tear injury group, and 325 claims were accepted for other injuries like infection, split or burst wounds and bladder damage.
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Women who have had a baby are three times more likely to leak urine than women who have not had a baby.
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Over 15% of women will have a sexual dysfunction after giving birth.
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