The Wire

The federal government may be encouraging us to have more babies but many women may find it difficult to access medical support for child-birth in the near future. Around a quarter of Australia’s women live in rural areas but only 10% of our specialist obstetricians work in the country. As the numbers of General Practitioner obstetricians decline due to high insurance costs and country towns struggle to attract new doctors, this shortage looks set to worsen. Christine Baker spoke to Les Woollard, a GP Obstetrician from the New South Wales country town of Mooree and Doctor Ian Pettigrew, Associate Professor fpr Rural Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Monash University.