The birth charter for women in prisons in Australia

The Australian Birth Charter aims to adapt the guidelines from the original Birth Charter for pregnant women in prisons in England and Wales (developed by Birth Companions UK) to the Australian context. The Australian Birth Charter for pregnant women in prison will provide a set of guidelines for best practice within which care for incarcerated pregnant women should be provided. This Australian Birth Charter sets out our recommendations for improving the care of pregnant women and their babies while they are in prison. At the same time, we (the authors) welcome input from all stakeholders to contribute to the improvement of the experiences of pregnant women and new mothers in prison. For the pregnant women and new mothers who remain in prison, we believe that, as per Birth Companions’ original intent, implementing an Australian Birth Charter is now more critical than ever

A unified call to action from Australian nursing and midwifery leaders: Ensuring that Black lives matter

Nurses and midwives of Australia now is the time for change! As powerfully placed, Indigenous and non-Indigenous nursing and midwifery professionals, together we can ensure an effective and robust Indigenous curriculum in our nursing and midwifery schools of education. Today, Australia finds itself in a shifting tide of social change, where the voices for better and safer health care ring out loud. Voices for justice, equity and equality reverberate across our cities, our streets, homes, and institutions of learning. It is a call for new songlines of reform. The need to embed meaningful Indigenous health curricula is stronger now than it ever was for Australian nursing and midwifery. It is essential that nursing and midwifery leadership continue to build an authentic collaborative environment for Indigenous curriculum development. Bipartisan alliance is imperative for all academic staff to be confident in their teaching and learning experiences with Indigenous health syllabus. This paper is a call out. Now is the time for Indigenous and non-Indigenous nurses and midwives to make a stand together, for justice and equity in our teaching, learning, and practice. Together we will dismantle systems, policy, and practices in health that oppress. The Black Lives Matter movement provides us with a ‘now window’ of accepted dialogue to build a better, culturally safe Australian nursing and midwifery workforce, ensuring that Black Lives Matter in all aspects of health care