Key Points
- A NSW inquiry is hearing first-hand accounts of women who experienced birth trauma.
- Witnesses have told of life-threatening experiences, birth injuries and non-consensual procedures.
- The hearing is the sixth and last before the inquiry is due to report to parliament in June.
A 19-year-old woman's fears about her pregnancy were dismissed with comments from midwives like "they just keep getting younger" in the weeks before she gave birth to a stillborn daughter.
Larissa Palamara told a NSW parliamentary inquiry into birth trauma she was so sick in the final weeks of her pregnancy in 1997 that she did not have the energy to stand in the shower.
"I was consistently losing weight at every check-up," Palamara told the committee on Monday.
"Instead of being offered testing or having my concerns validated, I was told it was because I was a teenager who was trying to protect my bikini body."
Paramedics dismissed Cassidi-Rae Amosa's stroke as an overdose because she was a young mum-to-be. Source: AAP / Supplied
"The midwife ... made it very clear to me from the first meeting that her own children were older than me," she said.
"'They just keep getting younger' was her claim ... that became a constant theme of any question I asked or concern I raised."
Almost three decades later, Palamara shared her lingering torment at having been sedated when she asked about her baby after waking from an emergency cesarean section.
"I was the only person in the room that didn't know she was already gone," she said.
"That was taken from me."
The inquiry, which has received submissions from 4,000 people including patients, doctors, midwives and experts across Australia, has been examining the prevalence and effects of birth trauma.
Many witnesses have told of life-threatening experiences, birth injuries, non-consensual procedures and insensitive treatment by staff.
Cassidi-Rae Amosa collapsed at work about a week after giving birth in 2019, suffering several strokes.
Amosa was discharged from a NSW hospital with high blood pressure, but her risk was overlooked before and during the strokes because she was 21.
"The paramedics pretty much stated that I was so young, there's no chance of me having a stroke," she said.
"(They said) 'She must be overdosing'."
Soon after the birth, a doctor removed fragments of placenta in a rough and invasive procedure, Amosa told the committee.
She urged healthcare professionals to actively seek consent.
"No nurse or midwife or doctor can tell me (about) my body," Amosa said.
The hearing is the sixth and last before the inquiry is due to report to parliament in June.
A submission by the Australian Association of Psychologists said up to 5 per cent of women have reported physical or emotional distress due to poor birthing experiences.
First Nations people and those living in regional and rural areas often cannot access adequate and timely psychological care, its submission said, while young parents can face bias in the health system.
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