Department of Health

Aboriginal maternity services

Delivering culturally appropriate maternity care for Aboriginal women or women having Aboriginal babies, and their families.

Key messages

  • Flexible and outreach services enable more women to access services earlier.
  • With 14 sites across Victoria, Koori maternity services are an integral component of Victoria’s maternity service system.

Koori Maternity Services

Koori Maternity Services offer flexible, person-centred care, strengthened by Aboriginal culture and practice and built upon respectful trusting relationships between women their families and Koori Maternity Service staff.

Outcomes for Aboriginal women and their families

The goal of Koori Maternity Services is to ensure that Aboriginal women and families receive culturally safe and high-quality pregnancy care, with the following outcomes:

  • More Aboriginal women access antenatal care earlier in their pregnancy.
  • Fewer Aboriginal women smoke during pregnancy.
  • Fewer Aboriginal babies are born early.
  • Fewer Aboriginal babies die during pregnancy or soon after birth.

Objectives for service delivery

The objectives of Koori Maternity Services are to:

  • provide care that is culturally safe and responsive
  • work flexibly to improve equity of access
  • ensure clear and accountable clinical governance
  • work together for a specialised and highly skilled workforce
  • deliver health promotion as a core component of care
  • deliver tailored and intensive support for women and families experiencing vulnerability
  • collaborate with service providers for continuity of care
  • monitor service delivery and measure outcomes.

Koori Maternity Services guidelines

Developed in partnership with the Victorian Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation and Koori Maternity Services, Koori Maternity Services guidelines: delivering culturally responsive and high-quality care gives voice to the wisdom and expertise of the Koori Maternity Services workforce regarding the provision of culturally safe and high-quality pregnancy and postnatal care for Aboriginal women, babies and their families.

The principles of care described in the guidelines provide a shared foundation for the delivery of Koori Maternity Services and establish the requirements for service delivery.

The guidelines form the basis of annual local and statewide program review and monitoring.

Koori Maternity Service minimum dataset

Health services and Aboriginal Community-Controlled Health Organisations providing Koori Maternity Services are required to submit program data to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Koori Maternity Services program data is used to demonstrate service delivery and provides the basis of ongoing program development.

Visit Koori Maternity Services minimum dataset e-reporting formExternal Link to submit the program data.

Location of Koori maternity services around Victoria

Region

Koori maternity service

North and West Metropolitan

Victorian Aboriginal Health Service

Western Health (Sunshine Hospital)

Northern Health (The Northern Hospital)

Southern Metropolitan

Dandenong and District Aborigines Co-operative

Peninsula Health (Frankston Hospital)

Barwon South West

Wathaurong Aboriginal Co-operative

Gunditjmara Aboriginal Co-operative

Hume

Rumbalara Aboriginal Co-operative

Mungabareena Aboriginal Corporation

Gippsland

Gippsland and East Gippsland Aboriginal Co-operative

Ramahyuck District Aboriginal Corporation

Loddon Mallee

Mallee District Aboriginal Service - Mildura

Mallee District Aboriginal Health Service - Swan Hill

Njernda Aboriginal Corporation

Reviewed 06 December 2023

Health.vic

Contact us

Maternity and Newborn Program Department of Health

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