Outcome 2: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are born healthy and strong

Target 2: By 2031, increase the proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander babies with a healthy birthweight to 91 per cent.

Minister responsible

Minister for Health and Aged Care, Assistant Minister for Indigenous Health

Productivity Commission national progress against the target

The path forward

Increasing the proportion of First Nations babies with a healthy birthweight will significantly improve the health of First Nations infants and lay the foundations for better lifelong health.

The Commonwealth will strengthen and expand partnership arrangements with the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services sector to support the design and delivery of culturally safe perinatal and child health services, in line with Priority Reform Two.

The Commonwealth will prioritise activities that address the most influential factors contributing to healthy birthweight among First Nations babies, including maternal smoking, underweight mothers, gestational diabetes and access to culturally safe perinatal care and wrap‑around support.

Priority actions

Birthing on Country Centre of Excellence

The Commonwealth is investing $22.5 million for a dedicated Birthing on Country Centre of Excellence at Waminda in Nowra, NSW. This will support cultural safety during pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. The Birth Centre, to be operational in 2025–26, will also be used as a national Birthing on Country demonstration site. Birthing on Country models of care return maternity services to communities and First Nations control and enable self-determination and connection to family, culture and community across the perinatal period, which improves birth outcomes for First Nations mothers and babies.

Programs to improve maternal and perinatal health outcomes

Implementation is underway of the Closing the Gap Healthy Mums, Healthy Bubs measure, through which the Commonwealth is investing $45 million over four years (2021–22 to 2024–25). This investment is being targeted towards:

• Expansion of the Australian Nurse-Family Partnership Program from 13 to 15 sites, to holistically support more women pregnant with a First Nations baby from pregnancy to toddlerhood
• Supporting Birthing on Country and culturally safe continuous midwifery care projects for women pregnant with a First Nations baby, including Waminda’s Workforce Readiness Program, the Institute of Urban Indigenous Health’s Birthing in Our Community program, and Charles Darwin University’s Djakamirr Birth Companion model
• Supporting projects to grow the First Nations maternal health workforce, inclusive of midwives, maternal health nurses, obstetricians, and birth doulas; and supporting training to ensure that this workforce can provide culturally safe support to all First Nations peoples.

Maternal and child health model of care

The Department of Health and Aged Care is partnering with the National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation (NACCHO) to develop a maternal and child health model of care to enable First Nations mothers and families to access consistent, culturally safe and effective care.

Summary of new actions

*A full appendix of new and existing measures being undertaken by the Commonwealth to support Closing the Gap efforts is on the NIAA website, at Closing the Gap implementation measures.