Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T17:39:19.346Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

‘Walking my baby back home’ - Policy and Practice in Health Services and Single Parent Families

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 February 2016

Abstract

The position of single parent families in Australia is examined from a historical perspective, and this is a prelude to a discussion of service provision in maternity hospitals and Baby Health Centres in New South Wales, which are now staffed under the auspices of the Community Health Program. The paper is concerned with issues raised by criteria used to predict child abuse. These criteria are examined from two methodological perspectives; the first applies to the welfare critiques of social control to health service delivery, and the second is an epidemiological critique that notes an extremely high error rate in predicting child abuse at one maternity hospital.

Some data from the New South Wales Maternal/Perinatal Statistics Collection on low birthweight and hospital status is used to discuss some implications of this critique related to service delivery and social class of both providers and recipients of health services.

Type
Maternity Services - Single Parents
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alford, K. (1988). Convict and immigrant women before 1851, in Jupp, J. (ed) The Australian people: An encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins. North Ryde: Angus & Robertson, pp. 4347.Google Scholar
Bennett, A., Lumley, J. and Bartlett, D. (1987). Review article: the use of epidural bupivacaine for the relief of childbirth pain, Australian Journal of Paediatrics, Vol. 23, pp 1319.Google Scholar
Berkow, R., and Fletcher, A.J. (eds) (1987). The Merck manual, fifteenth edition, Rahway, M.J., Merck, Sharp and Dohme Research Laboratories, Division of Merck & Co., Inc. Google Scholar
Boland, C. (1989). The case for homebirths: A critical review of the literature and comparative study of home and hospital births. Australian studies in health service administration No. 65, School of Health Administration, University of New South Wales.Google Scholar
Dickey, B. (1976). The labour government and medical services in NSW, 1910-1914 in Roe, J. (ed) Social policy in Australia: some perspectives, 1901-1975, Stanmore (NSW): Cassell Australia, pp. 6073.Google Scholar
Dingwall, R. (forthcoming) Some problems about predicting child abuse and neglect, in Stevenson, O. (ed) Child abuse: Public policy and professional practice, Brighton: Wheatsheaf, pp. 2853.Google Scholar
Martin, A. (1988). Public policy before Federation, in Jupp, J. (ed) op.cit., pp. 7176.Google Scholar
Muhlen-Schulte, L., and Wade, K. (1988. Interventions in childbirth and neonatal responsiveness, Community health studies, XII (1), pp. 6981.Google Scholar
Normoyle, M. (1983). Problems with parenting: the role of the maternity unit. Patient Management, September, pp. 7380.Google Scholar
O'Brien, A. (1988). Poverty's prison, the poor in New South Wales 1880-1918, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
O'Farrell, P. (1986). The Irish in Australia, Kensington: New South Wales University Press.Google Scholar
Rothfield, A. (1981). Use of a family support centre in a large maternity teaching hospital The Lamp, December, pp. 58.Google Scholar
Summers, A. (1975). Damned whores and God's police: The colonisation of women in Australia, Melbourne: Penguin.Google Scholar
Sweeney, T. (1989). Inequalities in our provision for young children, in Kennedy, R. (ed) Australian welfare: the final report of the ministerial task force on obstetric services in New South Wales, Sydney: Department of Health NSW.Google Scholar
Tudehope, D.I. (1983). Optimal and suboptimal parent-infant attachments, Patient management, September, pp. 6172.Google Scholar
Yu, Y.H. (1983). Psychosocial issues in neonatal care, Patient management, September, pp. 5159.Google Scholar