It can be a long, rough road to the maternity ward when your baby is due and too many women in the regions have learned this the hard way.

In rural and remote areas 5 per cent of women give birth before arriving at hospital, including on the roadside, compared to just 0.7 per cent of women statewide.

Now, Jen Laurie, a perinatal and early infancy mental health professional based in Armidale, is leading the Bush Babies Matter campaign which is calling for an inquiry into maternity care for women in rural and regional areas.

Ms Laurie is an accredited social worker, a Newborn Behaviour Observation (NBO) clinician, a qualified Neuroprotective Developmental Care (NDC) practitioner, a PhD candidate, and founder of perinatal mental health service provider Her Herd.

She says there is no linear answer to the decline in maternity services, but sometimes it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

" When we talk to some midwives, particularly those who work in hospitals that are frequently by-passed, they might have 35 births on the cards for January to February 2025. But because of the categorisation of risk, funding, and lack of resources, of those 35 women who were booked only two or three could be facilitated in that hospital," said Ms. Laurie.

"Therefore, the data looks like that of all of those women, they only did three births. But that was because they could only facilitate three births, they've been bypassed. So you have this kind of self-fulfilling prophecy of 'oh that's an underutilized, underused service.'

" It's not a true reflection of how many babies were actually born in that community and could have used that touchpoint service, because they're being referred on to a networked centre. And because in New South Wales we fund by birth, we don't see services increase."

Ms Laurie (right) with her family. Image: https://jenlaurie.com.au/

More than 140 rural maternity services have closed nationwide in the last 20 years, however Ms. Laurie says an open maternity service doesn't necessarily guarantee women can give birth in their own town.

"Those 140 services closed nationally represents the ones that are gone forever. But on closer inspection, we might actually be worse off than that.

"Sometimes a service might say open but actually the lights are on, but no one's home. And that's when we see those bypasses or centralisations or women being categorised out and sent onto the next major centre.

"That's the true data that we can't really articulate because some services are open, but only for a given time. For instance, Kempsey is only operational so many days a week."

Dr Amanda Cohn, a Member of Legislative Council and NSW Greens spokesperson for Health, Emergency Services, and Western NSW, said the Bush Babies Matter campaign highlighted the inequities people living in regional and rural areas face in accessing maternity care.

"As a country GP who provided antenatal and postnatal care before I was elected to Parliament, I've seen firsthand the challenges to accessing quality and timely care in the regions, and the expense or the distance some women must travel to access care that should be accessible closer to home.

"Some of these stories are devastating."

Dr Amanda Cohn. Image: NSW Greens.

Dr Cohn also said the pay disparity between healthcare workers in NSW compared to other states was contributing to the issues.

"NSW continues to lose valuable health workers including midwives and public hospital doctors to other states that offer better pay and conditions.

"To stop the exodus, health workers must be paid at least what they would earn in other states.

"The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association have been campaigning for years for safe staffing ratios for midwives.

"Safer working conditions for staff also mean safer care for patients. We also need to support more GPs to develop and maintain the skills they need to practice as GP Obstetricians or GP Anaesthetists in regional hospitals."

Last year, the Victorian branch of the Australian Nursing and Midwifery association signed a pay deal with the Victorian Government for a 28.4 per cent compounded wage increase by November 2027.

In comparison, NSW nurses and midwives received a 4.5 per cent pay increase in 2023, with an interim three per cent in 2024.

The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association continues to campaign for a one-time 15 per cent pay increase.

However, pay isn't the only factor in getting staff to regional areas.

"The job isn't the only thing that attracts health workers and their families to move to particular areas - all levels of government need to support regional communities to ensure access to things like childcare and quality public education, transport, recreational opportunities, and jobs for family members working in other industries.

"The 'Attract, Connect, Stay' program operating in Glen Innes is a great example of this," said Dr Cohn.

'Attract, Connect, Stay' is a wholistic program, designed to help healthcare workers settle in and create strong connections within the communities they live and work in.

Glen Innes was the first town in NSW to adopt the program, which had previously been successfully running in Shepparton, Victoria.

The Bush Babies Matter e-petition was debated in the Upper House of NSW Parliament by the NSW Legislative Council on the 26 March.

"People in the bush do not care about politics. They do not care about what members say in this place," said Gunnedah-based Nationals MLC Sarah Mitchell told the council members.

"They just want to be able to go to their local hospital to have a baby and feel safe and cared for. This is what we should make sure happens."

The Western Plains App will follow the progress of the Bush Babies Matter campaign.