Big tick for new post-natal team

Wimmera Health Care Group physiotherapy team has bridged a service gap for its mums and babies with a new post-natal program.

Physiotherapist Brooke Davies is passionate about women’s health and through an improvement program realised there was a gap of new mums and their babies not always being referred to physiotherapy in the first few months after birth.

“We surveyed new mums to see where the gaps in the service were and where the gaps in knowledge were and the main issue was post discharge from hospital and follow-ups with physiotherapy,” she said.

“So now, as part of discharge, new mums are booked in for our post-natal physiotherapy group which runs across two weeks.

“The group has a focus on mums in one week and the babies in the second week. From this we can often pick up on any issues and concerns and one-on-one appointments can be made. This helps close the gap.”

Brooke Carr and her son Ace, now 10 months old, participated in the program and Mrs Carr was impressed.

“I was really happy with the classes, especially as I was able to ask a lot of questions,” she said.

“I went when Ace was six weeks old and I was feeling fairly back to normal then after my caesarean section and asked about returning to high-intensity sport. I was told that starting with a lower-impact exercise regime would be beneficial as my body still needed time to recover.

“If it weren’t for the program and being able to ask a professional those questions, I probably would have done things that weren’t great for my body in the long run.

“I have recommended the class to other new mums I know and they have also been really happy with it.”

Ms Davies said through the improvement program, the departments in Allied Health at Wimmera Health Care Group consolidated information from antenatal classes to ensure there was no double-up of information and more informative information sessions.