‘I wish I was listened to’: NSW to respond to landmark birth trauma inquiry

The inquiry has called for sweeping reforms amid concerns about the care women receive during pregnancy and birth.

Sydney, Australia – Sam Hall, an Aboriginal woman from Ormiston in southeast Queensland, was 40 weeks pregnant when she felt her baby’s movements slow. She was already anxious about her son’s safety – earlier scans had found possible problems with her pregnancy, and her partner had genetic heart issues.

But when she tried to raise her concerns with medical staff at her local hospital, she was dismissed and sent home.

“I knew something was wrong,” Hall said. “I was made to feel like a nuisance. They put a lot of it down to me being a ‘paranoid mother’ so I was never taken seriously.”

The next night, she went into labour. Terrified, she called the stand-in midwife she had been assigned. She was told to wait until her scheduled induction a day later.

“All she told me was to take some Panadol, have a shower and go back to bed,” Hall said. “[In the morning] she said to me: ‘I wish you just held out’ [to the preplanned induction time].”