A major inquiry into stillbirth has delivered its report to State Parliament, making 22 recommendations to strengthen prevention, improve care, and ensure better support for families who experience the devastating loss of a baby.
The Malinauskas Labor Government has accepted all recommendations in principle and is today announcing a funding commitment to address a key recommendation to provide more support for bereaved families.
South Australia's Parliamentary Select Committee into Stillbirth was established in October 2024 by Member for Newland Olivia Savvas and has spent the past year hearing evidence from bereaved families, healthcare professionals, researchers, and advocacy organisations.
More than eight in 1,000 births in Australia are stillbirths, leaving so many devastated families asking why.
Across 79 written submissions and testimony from 49 witnesses, the Committee heard consistent calls for greater awareness, more equitable access to care, and a compassionate, consistent approach to bereavement support.
The 22 Recommendations across seven key areas include:
- Introduce the discreet 'purple butterfly' program, a symbol of pregnancy after loss, in hospital records to help healthcare professionals identify and sensitively support parents who have experienced a previous loss
- Ensure plans for the new Women's and Children's Hospital include a delivery suite for parents delivering stillborn babies
- Support the distribution of preventive brochures and materials to expectant parents, including those specifically designed for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and culturally and linguistically diverse families
- Embed the Safer Baby Bundle into the SA Pregnancy Record so stillbirth is discussed openly and early with expectant parents
- Improve data collection and reporting by encouraging formalised, timely data collection at maternity hospitals, with real-time notification to the South Australian Maternal and Perinatal Mortality Committee
- Expand education and training for healthcare professionals to better support parents through loss and subsequent pregnancies, including upskilling midwives with specified bereavement models of care
In direct response to the recommendations, the Malinauskas Government is today announcing it will provide ongoing funding to the Red Tree Foundation, an initiative of SIDS and Kids SA.
The Government is providing $850,000 over the next four years to enable the service to continue offering specialist counselling for families affected by the loss of an infant or child, including telephone and telehealth counselling for rural and regional areas.
This ongoing investment builds on the Government's previous election commitment investment of $800,000 over four years in 2022 to expand the service, ensuring more bereaved parents, siblings and relatives receive dedicated grief counselling and support when they need it most.
While acknowledging that not all stillbirths can be prevented, it is hoped these recommendations will help reduce risk before and during pregnancy through stronger collaboration between parents and healthcare providers while ensuring compassionate, consistent care when loss does occur.
The Committee's report can be viewed here.
As put by Chris Picton
Stillbirth has a devastating and lasting impact on so many families.
This report gives voice to those families and sets out a path for how we can do better, by improving awareness, care and support across our health system.
We have accepted in principle all of the Committee's 22 recommendations, and will now begin the work to implement them so we can better support both families and the healthcare professionals who care for them.
I thank Olivia for her commitment to seeking answers about stillbirth and improving understanding and care for families who experience this heartbreaking loss.
As put by Member for Newland Olivia Savvas
It has been one of the great privileges of my career to establish the Select Committee into Stillbirth, in memory of my baby brother Benjamin.
I have been forever shaped by the loss of my brother, and I know firsthand that the impact of infant loss is long-lasting.
It has been 25 years since my mum first sought better outcomes from the State Government after the loss of her little boy. I am incredibly proud that our Government is taking steps to increase those supports for families like my own.
I am grateful to each and every parent who has shared stories with our Committee of babies loved and lost. I thank them for letting our work contribute to their babies' legacies.
As put by Red Tree Foundation General Manager Kari Langdon
We're immensely grateful for the Malinauskas Government's ongoing support to enable us to continue helping families through the unimaginable loss of a child.
The Government's commitment of a further $850,000 over the next four years will allow us to continue offering specialist counselling for families affected by the loss of an infant or child, including telephone and telehealth counselling for rural and regional areas.
