Exploring care for multicultural mums-to-be

More than 300 women from various nationalities who work in health and government agencies recently gathered at Westmead Hospital for the annual perinatal cultural and linguistic conference, which addressed ways to provide better care for pregnant women.

The conference is a collaboration between Westmead Women’s & Newborn Health, the Women’s Health Clinic, Westmead Medical Research Foundation and Community Migrant Resource Centre.

Westmead Hospital’s Women’s & Newborn Health registrar Dr James Brown said some of the challenges for women from different countries is they have a limited understanding or knowledge of the English language and find it challenging to navigate their way around a complex healthcare system.

“At Westmead Hospital we treat many women from a broad range of nationalities and have a different understanding of pregnancy and how things should be done,” James said.

“The conference allowed us to share knowledge and experiences we encounter with dealing with uniquely diverse patients and develop new ideas which can be used translated into future projects.”

For further information about Women’s & Newborn Health services, visit:

https://www.wslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/Westmead-Hospital/Westmead-Hospital