Birthing on Country: RISE SAFELY in rural, remote and very remote Australia

Aim: To promote the best start to life for First Nations children and families by transforming maternity care systems. We will establish and evaluate rural, remote and very remote Birthing on Country services, thereby translating evidence from Australia’s urban exemplar Birthing on Country service,1-9 and other landmark studies by our team.15-24
Primary objectives: To partner with key stakeholders through community-based, DPAR approach,7,25,26 using our innovative RISE implementation framework9,27 (Appendix 1), and the World Health Organization (WHO)’s scaling-up strategy28 to:
1. Test the translational capability of our innovative RISE Framework9 as we redesign maternal infant health services to increase continuity of midwifery and quality of care, increase the First Nations workforce, and positively impact the health and wellbeing of First Nations women and babies in three exemplar sites.
2. Conduct a process, impact and outcome (implementation, acceptability, cost, cultural and clinical safety and effectiveness) evaluation through three prospective, non-randomised clinical trials (See specific trial details below and Program Logic: Appendix 2).
3. Develop and evaluate a process for clinical mentoring and reflective supervision for the frontline workforce (adapted for context in each site).
4. Increase First Nations community and consumer engagement, governance and control as we co-develop community reproductive health data reports, facilitate data sovereignty, reproductive health literacy, intercultural communication, knowledge translation and community control.