{"id":32839,"date":"2025-05-23T19:39:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T19:39:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=32839"},"modified":"2025-05-23T19:39:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T19:39:44","slug":"greens-welcome-standalone-birth-centre-after-years-advocating-with-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/greens-welcome-standalone-birth-centre-after-years-advocating-with-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Greens welcome standalone birth centre after years advocating with community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Deputy Leader of the ACT Greens Jo Clay:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe ACT Greens have advocated with midwives, mothers, parents and everyday Canberrans for a standalone birth centre for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToday\u2019s announcement for a standalone birth centre as part of the new North Canberra Hospital project is a testament to the community\u2019s hard work and advocacy over decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBirth is not an illness. But the simple reality is that most women and birthing people currently have no choice but to give birth inside a hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSome women and birthing people will want to choose to birth in a hospital, and we support everyone in their choices, but for those who want to birth in a home-like environment with a known midwife, Canberrans simply need more options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cRight now our current birth centres have waitlists hundreds of people long because they provide continuity of care &#8211; which better supports individual needs, reduces unnecessary medical interventions and results in more positive birth experiences and outcomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis new standalone birth centre will mean more women and birthing people will have more choice and confidence throughout pregnancy and birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis report also acknowledges that a freestanding birth centre fully separate to a hospital campus and out in the community, with alternative governance, is a good option in the future for Canberra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cSuch a facility would have the potential to better meet the needs of the community, especially in supporting First Nations families through Birthing With Country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Background<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The ACT Greens included their 2020 election commitment to a standalone family birth centre as a priority in the Parliamentary and Governing Agreement for the 10th Legislative Assembly.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>On 7 February 2023, Ms Clay unanimously passed a private members motion committing the ACT Government to complete the feasibility study, released today, for a co-designed midwife-led facility, either located alongside or fully separate from the new northside hospital, by August 2024.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Also on 7 February 2023, Ms Clay tabled a petition with over 3000 signatures calling for a freestanding birth centre in the ACT.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>On 30 September 2024, the ACT Greens reconfirmed an election commitment for the ACT\u2019s first co-designed and midwife-led freestanding birth centre on the northside.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Deputy Leader of the ACT Greens Jo Clay: \u201cThe ACT Greens have advocated with midwives, mothers, parents and everyday Canberrans for a standalone birth centre for years. \u201cToday\u2019s announcement for a standalone birth centre as part of the new North Canberra Hospital project is a testament to the community\u2019s hard work and advocacy over decades. &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2025\/05\/23\/greens-welcome-standalone-birth-centre-after-years-advocating-with-community\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Greens welcome standalone birth centre after years advocating with community&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32840,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32839\/revisions\/32840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}