Originally Published March 3 2022

COHUNA District Hospital is designing its maternity service to meet the needs of local women and families into the future.

The small health service has been caring for women and their families during pregnancy, labour and birth and early parenting for more than 80 years.

During this time, the hospital has welcomed more than 5000 babies and watched the region grow and change.

Chief executive officer Bernadette Loughnane said working in partnership with midwives, consumers, community groups, Department of Health, Safer Care Victoria and the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Federation Victorian branch, the health service has begun an exciting redesign process.

Ms Loughnane said the first step was speaking with women and families in the region.

"Our aim is to deliver a service that is safe, accessible, equitable and woman-centred," Ms Loughnane said.

"It was very important to us that we begin the redesign process by asking the women and families of our community what mattered to them when it came to maternity care."

It became clear during focus groups that people were much-aligned, Ms Loughnane said.

"They wanted to know the people caring for them, and to be cared for and have their babies as close to home and community as possible," she said.

"They wanted their care to be delivered in a way that suited them, their needs and their family, and they wanted to be able to access other services easily if they needed them.

"We're using this information to help redesign our model of maternity care.

"We are bringing together local midwives and GPs, obstetricians, larger health services, allied health, community and technology to care for women and families.

"We are excited by the prospect of what is ahead and see this as an enormous opportunity to improve maternity choices for local families and lead the way for small health services in our region."

The new model of care is expected to launch in stages from early 2022.

Women who are pregnant now can still receive care during pregnancy and care-at-home after the birth of their baby from the midwifery clinic at Cohuna District Hospital.

For more details, email [email protected], call 0417 598 491 or visit www.cdh.org.au.