Catherine is based in Mudgee, in Central West New South Wales. While she’s found her way through pregnancy loss, she’s had plenty of challenges along the path. In late 2023, she went through three missed miscarriages and a chemical pregnancy. Each time she experienced trauma in medical delays that compounded her emotional trauma. Catherine’s story illuminates a growing challenge for women in rural America. For them, geographical isolation adds to the heartache of losing a child.
Following her first miscarriage, Catherine waited almost two weeks for a dilation and curettage. She shared how the experience was “really pretty devastating.” She underscored the emotional toll that these delays take on women who are often already facing a painful loss. “Access meant there was a delay in everything,” she stated, reflecting on how these hurdles intensified her grief.
The Broader Impact of Geographic Isolation
As Samantha Payne, co-founder and chief executive of the Pink Elephants Support Network, reminds us, losing a baby is heartbreaking. She notes that this grief is compounded for those who face geographic dispossession. Female residents of rural areas have a 60 percent increased risk of perinatal death. By comparison, people who reside in large urban areas fare the best. In addition, studies show that women in rural areas are more likely to wait more than three hours longer for specialist obstetric care.
Lucy Frankham, a perinatal psychologist, affirms these developments. She insists that mothers in rural and regional areas are the most severely limited in support that’s out there. She explained that while women may receive physical checks, “there is not even any enquiry about their mental health or a referral for a mental health service.” This failure to provide holistic, compassionate care often leads women to feel abandoned during a pivotal moment in their lives.
Catherine’s experiences illustrate the critical need for a maternity care reform—as told by those who’ve lived it. “I think we need early support, early treatment and something like early loss clinics available for everybody,” she urged. Good services like these might offer life-saving support to women who are going through all the same struggles.
Challenges in Accessing Care
The report on maternity care reform identified five key areas needing attention: national care standards, continuity of care models, trauma-informed communication, culturally safe support, and digital-first peer services. These systemic reforms take steps to ensure that all rural women find it a little less hard and dangerous to go through the experience of perinatal loss.
Ms. Ashlea Russell, who lives in Port Douglas, described her experience in navigating the maternity health system. With the nearest facility located in Cairns, she expressed her concerns about the geographical barriers affecting women in similar situations. “I just think these rural areas need to not be forgotten,” she said, underscoring the need for enhanced awareness and support.
Dr. Frankham noted that women tend to slip through the cracks of healthcare. “Women are having multiple recurrent pregnancy loss and they are falling through the cracks of the system,” she said. What she found was that a lot of women are actually rejected from emergency departments. Many of them leave without verifications of their miscarriages and must wait for ultrasounds to confirm them.
Government Initiatives and Support Networks
In response to these pressing issues, the NSW government has allocated $83 million towards maternity care improvements, including $44.8 million aimed at expanding the state’s midwife-led program, Midwifery Group Practice (MGP). Even with these efforts, over 40 percent of midwifery centers in countryside regions have closed since the early 1990s. Unfortunately, this closure has deprived innumerable women of essential services that go far beyond family planning.
Furthermore, $4 million has been allocated for the Pink Elephants Support Network to provide evidence-based, culturally relevant early intervention, individualized supports and services. With the hopes of filling some of these gaps in support and care, this funding is designed to do exactly that.
Catherine’s experience shows how deeply both miscarriage and rural isolation can affect women in rural communities. She tells her story to inspire change. Her hope is to help other mothers in similar situations by drawing attention to the lack of supports available.
