00:00 Midwife, mother and PhD researcher Sharon Stolias says she was approached by a number
00:07 of midwives earlier this year about race-based birth guidelines.
00:12 They sent me their policies and then when I looked through it I thought, okay, there's
00:15 a real problem here.
00:16 Internal documents and patient charts seen by the ABC reveal inductions are being offered
00:21 to some pregnant women earlier than others based only on their ethnicity.
00:26 It applies to South Asian-born mothers at 40 weeks in the Sydney local health district
00:31 and South Asian, African, Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Pacific mothers at 39
00:36 weeks in south-western Sydney.
00:39 The incidence of stillbirth is higher among these groups according to multiple studies
00:43 referenced in the guidelines, but the main author of two of these studies doesn't think
00:48 the response strikes the right balance.
00:51 At the moment we don't have evidence to say that we should be offering specific interventions
00:56 to women in healthcare settings based on their race.
01:00 A similar policy was proposed then abandoned in the UK after public backlash.
01:06 Ms Stolias says inducing too early can cause harm.
01:11 More intervention, poorer outcomes and more birth trauma and these are things that we
01:15 could reduce if we invested in better care.
01:19 A midwife at Canterbury Hospital has told the ABC staff first heard of the new induction
01:24 guideline in a 2020 email, but a lack of official policy has caused confusion.
01:29 She says this year one woman was even misidentified as South Asian and induced more than a week
01:35 early for no clinical reason.
01:37 The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists says it supports individualised care based
01:43 on a woman's risk and choices and the latest evidence-based information.
01:48 The timing of birth should be a shared discussion between the woman and the clinician that matches
01:55 the particular risk profile of the pregnancy and also the desire of the woman themselves.
02:01 Come up with a compromise like maybe increase monitoring between the 39 to 40 week mark.
02:06 It's not fair to this group of women.
02:08 It is racial profiling at its worst.
02:11 New South Wales Health didn't respond to detailed questions but said it recommends increased
02:16 monitoring for women from high-risk ethnicities to inform the timing of birth.
02:21 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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