Culturally safe care for Aboriginal families was a focus of a panel discussion on midwifery at the NSWNMA 2025 annual conference professional day.
The annual conference midwifery session was addressed by Aboriginal midwife Tamara Blanch who has worked for Binji and Boori Aboriginal Maternal Infant and Child Health Service for 20 years.
Binji and Boori is part of Illawarra Shoalhaven Local Health District.
It does not birth babies but provides continuity of care in the antenatal and postnatal periods.
Staff include Aboriginal health workers, child and family health nurses, midwives, social workers, an occupational therapist and a speech pathologist.
Tamara started her career as an Aboriginal health worker at Binji and Boori 20 years ago and completed a bachelor of midwifery in 2012.
She said the service supports families “from pregnancy testing to when baby starts school”.
The centre started by talking to community elders, women, and men’s groups “to find out from the community what they wanted,” Tamara said.
“We wanted to provide a family service; it wasn’t just for the women.
“We have a lot of cultural events rolled into our care.
“We provide a lot of education and a lot of our women go into that birthing space so well educated and so empowered that they come out the other side and say, ‘We had such a good experience’.
“One of the biggest successes I see in our program is that we have families who bring their babies in 18 years later and say, ‘This was your Aboriginal health worker, or this was your midwife’.
“They don’t say that just to me; it is to our non-Aboriginal staff as well.
“They come up, and they throw their babies over the table at Emma and Katrina and our other staff members for cuddles. This shows me that our service is successful.
“The families are comfortable coming to us and they refer the majority of our clients on to us, [which] shows trust.”
Build trust
Tamara was asked what healthcare staff can do to provide culturally safe care in services that are often restricted by red tape.
“Each interaction that we have with every family is an opportunity to build trust, to listen deeply, to build respect and to be respectful of everybody’s cultural identity,” Tamara replied.
“Just sitting and listening to someone’s story can open doors. It can make such a huge difference.”
She urged members to “advocate for change in your services”.
“Do it in your staff meetings, collaborate with your Aboriginal health workers, collaborate with your Aboriginal hospital liaison officers, take it to your Aboriginal executive directors.
“Listen to the wants and needs of your community.
“There are Aboriginal working groups across the state; go to them, listen to their wants and needs and take them to the meetings in your area.
“If we’ve got clients who are requesting things outside of normal care, I will request an MDC [multidisciplinary meeting] with the stakeholders at the hospital.
“I will pull in my manager, the manager of the maternity unit, the manager of the birthing unit and I will put the woman’s wants and cultural needs on the table …
“If the woman is at a place where she’s able to come to those meetings she will sit next to me, and we will discuss … what needs to happen.”
“All these things take time but … you can pull those Aboriginal health workers in to help you to do those meetings.”