"Prenatal Care"

I live in Karratha and am currently 26 weeks pregnant. I received my GP referral to transfer me to the local hospital (Karratha Health Campus) at 20 weeks gestation for the midwives to take over my care.

After a month I didn't hear anything from the hospital - I followed up multiple times calling the hospital to ask whether they had processed my referral. They admitted they had lost my referral and did not have me in their system and they would follow up with me to book in my first appointment. After waiting another week with no response, I called again to check the status of my transfer. They found me in the system and booked me in for my first appointment at week 26.

This is not good enough in my opinion. I have been told in my early scans that I would need more regular check ups as they found I had a single vessel umbilical cord which could affect the baby's growth and development. To not hear anything for over a month has really affected my mental health and left me mistrusting the system to care for me and my baby.

I have another pregnant friend that was not seen until 28 weeks gestation after a similar administrative error occurred. As a result of what I feel to be the poor service and follow up, most of my pregnant friends leave the region to have their babies and come back up to Karratha after they feel it is safe to do so. The lack of attention, care and continuity with the midwives, obstetricians and doctors has really affected our family's desire to live and work regionally, especially starting a family and the support that is required to do so. We don't have family up here so we really do rely on a supportive health system. When this has failed us, we feel utterly alone navigating this huge life change by ourselves.