Bringing accessible antenatal care to disadvantaged women in outer western Sydney

Abstract

The Parenting and the Community Health (PatCH) project was established in an outer western Sydney primary school to provide a more accessible model of antenatal care to women from the surrounding area who potentially may delay or not access antenatal care in their pregnancy. The risk factor and demographic profile of disadvantaged women who did not access any antenatal care in their pregnancy during 1996-2002 indicates that most women resided in the most disadvantaged decile of collection districts, had several children, were single parents, and smoked; a third of the women were Pacific Islander; some women had drug problems; and some women had an undiagnosed mental disorder. In response, the PatCH project?s ethos includes recognition of psychosocial factors, including chronic poverty, and the social context of the cluster of maternal risk behaviours that potentially impact on maternal and foetal health. Service provision encompasses engaging women early in their pregnancy and continuity in antenatal and postnatal care followed by child and family services for the first five years of the child?s life. Due to the multiplicity of risk factors, the PatCH model includes monitoring the development of infants with a focus on early identification and intervention. Initial accounts from women attending PatCH confirm that continuity of seeing the same midwife encourages them to return as they only have to ?tell their story once?.