Around the country and indeed around the world hustling and cajoling, therein the complex webs of healthcare and community lie dedicated individuals and organisations working tirelessly to improve services. There always have been and I suspect, there always will be. When it comes to maternity care it’s no different. Primarily comprised of women and also some men, the improvement maternity services require

For this episode of the Pregnancy, Birth & Beyond show, Annalee caught up with the remarkable Helena Mooney, a Sydney resident and long-time maternity consumer advocate. They discuss what health advocacy looks like and the many challenges volunteers face in advocating for better and more meaningful maternity services.

From learning new terminology and jargon across several professional areas (such as research, government, health services, specific to maternity care, policy making, medico-legal, insurance etc etc) to finding your voice and calling out the many agendas that too often trump what the patient really needs in the moment to making sure that consumer engagement isn’t left within the bandwidth of tokenism as improvement in experience and outcome are only possible with meaningful engagement coupled with robust policies based in evidence based care and most importantly with effective accountability measures in place at every level.

Further information about Helena and her work is available at https://parentingwithplay.com.au

We'd love to hear from you, if you have any questions/comments about this or other interview or our work at PBB Media, shoot us a line at hello@pbbmedia.org.

Produced, edited and presented by Annalee Atia

The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond show is part of a wider nonprofit community media and journalism project, PBB Media.

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Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bunjulung nation, neighbouring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.