Join WHA

Login

Filter by Post Type

Yarning Circle: Australian Preterm Birth and Early Term Prevention Program

We are excited to share highlights from the recent First Nations Yarning Circle, a gathering aimed at exploring ways hospitals could better support First Nations women to reduce the rates of preterm birth—a critical issue affecting Indigenous communities across Australia.

This event was led by  Professor Cath Chamberlain from the University of Melbourne in the beautiful kuril dhagun space in the national Library in South Bank, Brisbane. The Yarning Circle was funded under the National Preterm Birth Prevention Program, a national quality improvement initiative led by the Australian Preterm Birth Prevention Alliance in collaboration with Women’s Healthcare Australasia.

The main goal of the Yarning Circle was to seek advice from First Nations leaders and experts on the critical steps maternity services across Australia need to take in order to ensure all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and families have access to culturally safe, trauma-informed maternity care. This gathering was not only about discussing challenges, but also about learning from the excellent work already being done by Aboriginal researchers and service providers. There are excellent initiative in place around the country and this Yarning Circle aimed to explore how the National Preterm Birth Prevention Program could help amplify these efforts across the country over the coming year..

Building on work from 2023-2024, which supported over 60 maternity hospitals across Australia to implement an evidence-based change package aimed at reducing preterm births, the Yarning Circle served as a key step in planning for Round 2 of the Collaborative Improvement effort. The first Every Week Counts Collaborative was guided by the advice and leadership of outstanding First Nations leaders, whose insights sparked changes at several participating maternity hospitals.

As we move into Round 2, the Yarning Circle provided an essential platform to ensure the changes made are culturally safe and effective. Our goal is to guide maternity hospitals to design and deliver culturally safe services, while expanding the number of hospitals adopting Aboriginal-led, culturally safe models of care, ultimately helping more Aboriginal babies to be born at or beyond 39 weeks of pregnancy.

We are grateful to all who participated in this one-day face-to-face gathering, and we are hopeful that the insights gained will lead to meaningful changes in maternity services. Together, we can work to reduce preterm birth rates, improve maternity care, and ensure healthier futures for First Nations families across Australia.