Event Details

Zoom Meeting

Event Icon

4 April 2023
12:30pm - 1:30pm AEST

4 April 2023
– 4 April 2023

Zoom Meeting

Event Icon

4 April 2023
12:30pm - 1:30pm AEST

4 April 2023
– 4 April 2023

Presenters:

Cherise Smith
Coordinator I Women's Individual Needs Clinic

Cherise Smith has worked at the Women’s for over 30 years. A registered nurse/midwife, Cherise has been integral to the establishment of the Women with Individual Needs (WIN) Clinic at the Royal Women’s Hospital in 2002.




Event Dates

Date: 4 April 2023
Time: 12:30pm – 1:30pm AEST

Date: 4 April 2023 – 4 April 2023

Location

Zoom Meeting

Providing disability informed maternity care - WIN Clinic

Vulnerable Women Series

Zoom Meeting


About

Almost one in five Victorian women and girls live with disability. Women with disability experience poorer health outcomes when compared to the general community due to inequities associated with gender and disability. The Royal Women’s hospital Melbourne has an established clinic that provides individualised, disability-informed maternity care to patients with sensory, neurological and physical difference.

Through our ongoing research with La Trobe University, we know that pregnant women with disability have higher rates of poor perinatal outcomes – including:

  • preterm births,
  • low birthweight babies and
  • admittances to Special Care and Neonatal intensive Care Units – when compared with general maternity data.

Providing accessible and inclusive healthcare and employment at the Women's is an important organisational and strategic priority. We continue to develop a framework to increase access and inclusion for people with disability by partnering with people with disability to provide healthcare and employment that addresses and removes structural barriers and discriminatory practices that impact health and employment outcomes, to ensure the full participation and inclusion of people with disability.

The presentation will discuss the findings of our research, care provisions we offer for women with disabilities accessing maternity care and the key needs to change to better support women with disabilities.​

The Women with Individual Needs (WIN) Clinic(link is external) is the only disability-informed maternity care clinic promoting optimal perinatal, antenatal and postnatal care in Australia and is still the only specialist pregnancy clinic for people with disability in Australia. Cherise has extensive experience and in-depth knowledge of the needs of women with disabilities (cognitive, physical and sensory, including acquired brain injuries and neurodiversity) and perinatal outcomes for this cohort of women. She is recognised as a national expert and advocate and is frequently called upon to provide advice and expertise.

Cherise is an active member of Women with Disabilities Professional Advisory Group, Experts in Our Health Project, a guest lecturer at La Trobe University (Psychosocial Complexities - Disability and Maternity Care) and a Positive Action Towards Career Engagement (PACE) Mentor. In the past, she has been a member of the Clinical Working Group Funds in Court Human Rights Advisory Committee (HRAC). Most recently, she was invited to speak to representatives of the Royal Commission into Violence, Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation of People with Disability and subsequently was asked to provide a written submission.

Key Takeaways