Clinicians and Consumers Unite to Demand System-Wide Maternity Care Reform Following Landmark Birth Trauma Roundtable

Monday 13 July 2026

One in three Australian women experience childbirth as traumatic. This Birth Trauma Awareness Week, the national peak body for obstetricians and gynaecologists warns that action on birth-related trauma cannot wait any longer.

Birth trauma is an escalating public health issue in Australia, yet national policy has not kept pace. This under-acknowledged crisis impacts a strained maternity care system, carries societal and productivity costs, and leaves women and families to grapple with devastating psychological, physical, and social consequences.

In search of solutions, The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG, the College), supported by Birth Trauma Australia, has convened the first national roundtable on birth trauma. Clinicians, policymakers, sector leaders, and women with lived experience assembled to confront a difficult truth: that birth trauma is not a series of isolated incidents, and rather stems from broader, system-level failure.

The roundtable follows the 2023 New South Wales Select Committee on Birth Trauma, which saw over four thousand submissions – one of the largest volumes of consumer input in the state’s history – evidencing the widespread impacts of birth-related trauma and significant gaps in the system.

Consumer lived experience grounded the roundtable discussion, illustrating the realities of birth-related trauma and its consequences that extend well beyond the immediate postnatal period. Women described physical injury, chronic pain, incontinence, prolapse, and sexual dysfunction. These outcomes were further complicated by delayed diagnosis, inconsistent advice, and a lack of coordinated postnatal care.

Pelvic floor dysfunction was identified as one of the most common and least recognised consequences of giving birth. Often emerging months or years after childbirth, pelvic floor disorders remain largely invisible within national data and funding structures.

Things people take for granted, like teaching their kid to ride a bike […] I couldn’t run beside them to steady them. It’s something I’ll forever remember. Something this injury has taken away from me.
– Consumer

Roundtable participants described a wide spectrum of psychological harm. Women spoke of severe distress and isolation, compounded by the toll of managing severe injury and chronic pain while navigating a version of parenthood they had never imagined. Often, the impact extended even further – with relationship strain or breakdown, cutting back on paid work, or leaving their chosen career path altogether as symptoms persisted.

Clinicians described the emotional, psychological, and professional toll of working within a system where women can feel unheard or unsupported. Many spoke of cumulative stress and vicarious trauma – particularly when system pressures prevented them from providing the level of care they wanted to. Underpinning much of this is a maternity system under strain: with staffing shortages, service closures, high turnover, and escalating workloads, all of which put both healthcare workers and patients at risk.

We have developed a structure where clinicians can put on a brave face, go home, lie awake all night, sleep for an hour, and get up and do it all again.
– Clinician

RANZCOG President Dr Nisha Khot emphasised the need for strategic, collaborative efforts to address this systemic issue.

“By uniting policy professionals, researchers, women with lived experience, and clinicians, we can build a national understanding of the true impact and cost of birth-related trauma. This is the vital first step in enacting urgently needed, meaningful system change.”
– Dr Nisha Khot, RANZCOG President

The College has compiled a report from its Birth Trauma Roundtable, providing an overview of the discussion and a clear set of recommendations:

Recommendation 1 | Modernise postnatal care settings to support early identification and continuity

Strengthen postnatal care settings to enable comprehensive assessment, timely follow-up, and coordinated care across the first year postpartum.
Modernise MBS arrangements to support longer consultations and multidisciplinary pathways.
Strengthen GP-led pathways for early identification and structured follow-up.
Introduce dedicated MBS and public hospital funding for pelvic floor assessment for all women post-birth.
Strengthen public hospital funding to support equivalent postnatal follow-up across the first year.

Recommendation 2 | Improve public awareness and trauma-informed care across maternity services

Deliver accessible, culturally safe public information on birth-related trauma and recovery.
Embed trauma-informed care across antenatal, intrapartum, and postnatal services.
Strengthen training and communication that supports safe, respectful care.

Recommendation 3 | Strengthen multidisciplinary postnatal and recovery pathways

Progress national standards for post-birth assessment, referral, and follow-up.
Expand access to pelvic health physiotherapy, psychological care, and telehealth-enabled pathways.
Progress research to strengthen evidence on recovery and early intervention.
Develop a Clinical Guideline for pelvic floor dysfunction and birth-related trauma, consistent with NHMRC methodology.

Recommendation 4 | Improve affordability and access to prevention and early intervention

Expand access to antenatal education and early intervention services across public and private settings.
Reduce cost barriers through subsidies and aligned funding.
Strengthen rural and regional access through telehealth, outreach, and integrated service models.

Recommendation 5 | Strengthen national data, visibility, and disability recognition for long-term maternal morbidity

Enhance national datasets, indicators, and reporting to reflect long-term maternal morbidity.
Develop data standards that capture outcomes across the first year postpartum and beyond.
Strengthen recognition of chronic functional impacts of pelvic floor morbidity within disability assessment pathways.

The roundtable, and its findings, is the first step in a much longer process of reform. Enacting these system-level solutions will require coordinated action across governments, insurers, health services, professional bodies and sector leaders. RANZCOG will use the report’s findings to press for urgent action – including improved postnatal care, reduction of cost barriers and recognition of long-term maternal impacts such as pelvic floor dysfunction.

Every part of the system must act on birth-related trauma as the structural issue the roundtable has confirmed it to be. Bringing these solutions from discussion to implementation is a key step in ensuring women in Australia receive the care, support and acknowledgement they deserve.

Read the report