Birth Trauma Awareness Week takes place annually from 14-20 July. The theme for 2025, , invites us to make space for the stories of different birthing journeys.
The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG, the College) participated actively throughout the NSW Parliament’s Select Committee on Birth Trauma inquiry in 2023 and 2024. The wide-ranging and personal accounts of birth trauma shared in submissions to the Select Committee and through public testimonies were heartbreaking. The evidence is undeniable: despite efforts to prevent it, birth trauma remains a profound and persistent challenge faced by many women, birthing people and those involved in providing maternity care.
In seeking to make a meaningful difference to address the core causes of birth trauma, the College has partnered with Birth Trauma Australia (BTA) to jointly leverage our shared expertise in training and education to develop sorely needed new multidisciplinary birth trauma training resources. A new pilot program will be established through the support of the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
The pilot training program will be delivered across three or four sites in rural New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Online modules will be developed and made available for pre-learning, with in-person workshops to follow. The content will be designed to deliver a truly multidisciplinary maternity perspective. The program will be open to a range of health professionals involved in maternity care, reinforcing the importance of specialists or GP Obstetricians, midwives, and other care providers working together to foster positive experiences for the women in their care. Each pilot workshop will have capacity for 25-30 attendees. Webinars based on the in-person workshop content will be developed and available to wider audiences through the RANZCOG and BTA networks.
The content of the pilot will include both practitioner and patient perspectives, befitting a topic where women’s experiences with birth and birth trauma should be paramount. Workshop facilitators will be drawn from across the maternity care spectrum and the ideal pilot sites will demonstrate an appetite for this type of training, as well as capability to host workshops of this nature.
The College is proud to have partnered with BTA to co-develop this vital training and education program. RANZCOG looks forward to rolling it out in practice, learning from experiences, and using those insights to further improve trauma-informed resources, and most importantly, reduce experiences of birth trauma.
Discussions are also underway in Aotearoa New Zealand to build on this project – the College is working collaboratively with Birth Trauma Aotearoa, the New Zealand College of Midwives, and other key stakeholders to research experiences of birth trauma in Aotearoa which will inform the development of guidance specific to New Zealand. RANZCOG continues to advocate for prevention of birth trauma through education, assessment, and access to physiotherapy treatment, especially during pregnancy.
