Maternal and child health services
Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (09:52): ‘Life-saving’, ‘brilliant’, ‘thorough’, ‘reassuring’, ‘lost without it’ – these are the words of some of the parents in Southern Metro, about their local maternal and child health services, who participated in my recent children’s round table held at the Caulfield South Community House. The birth of a child can obviously be a very uncertain time – exciting but uncertain – especially for many first-time parents, and for more than a century maternal and child health services have provided help, assistance and support for new parents until their children go to school. Monitoring growth and helping with feeding and sleeping, the parents at the round table told me that the service is an absolute treasure in the range of services the state government provides to children. I have made the point of visiting several of the maternal and child health services in Southern Metro, including the excellent North Brighton service that was recently upgraded by the state Labor government. Across the board the Labor government has invested more than $28 million over three years in the last budget to boost maternal and child health in Victoria and meet growing demand. I want to thank all of the exceptional maternal and child health nurses that work across the state who provide so much support to new parents, and I want to thank everyone who participated in the children’s round table – it was a great discussion.