Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I want to highlight the experiences of some of the expectant mothers in my community who've shared their stories:

I'm currently 23 weeks pregnant with my fourth child. All three of my kids were born in Gladstone, my last being only nine months old, born in April 2022.

The situation we currently face of not having a place to birth here in town worries me every day. I have 3 kids to think about as well as my health and my baby's health when it comes time to give birth.

I have quick labours of around 1-2 hours so a trip to Rockhampton isn't an option for me. Neither is staying there weeks before my due date, as I have no help to get my kids to school and watched while I may need to be gone. The cost of having to stay in some hotel and the stress of not being in your own home at 38 weeks pregnant is daunting. Birth is already such an uncertain and unplanned thing, so having this major uncertainty about where I can birth is keeping me up at night.

Another person said:

The bypass hasn't just been hard on expecting mothers, it has also been hard on partners as well, watching and listening to the extra stress and worry on our partners who are about to take on one of the hardest challenges the human body will go through. They shouldn't have to worry about whether they are going to make the 1hr-1.5hr drive to another town to give birth.

Gladstone is an industrious town where a lot of the population work long hours, some working more than twelve hours a day in hot and physical jobs. These people are then asked to drive their labouring partner over an hour on a road that is always littered with potholes and rough bitumen. This is unsafe and dangerous. Even with an ambulance transfer the partners still have to drive themselves or risk not being able to support their partner and missing this precious moment. Things need to change, things need to happen and it needs to be sooner rather than later.

Debate interrupted.