Select Committee Into Stillbirth in South Australia

Ms SAVVAS (Newland) (15:29): I thought I would take a moment today to talk about what a privilege it is to be chairing the South Australian parliament's Select Committee into Stillbirth. We have only just started our deliberative work, but receipt of the submissions over the last few months has honestly been some of the most rewarding work that I think I will do in this place.

I want to place on the record my thanks to the advocacy groups, the healthcare professionals and, of course, the bereaved families who have shared their stories with us, particularly those who have shared really difficult stories of babies loved and lost. Some for the very first time in their lives are sharing the details of what has been an incredibly traumatic experience for not just mothers but fathers and the rest of the family as well. It honestly does feel like a privilege to hear those stories for the first time and to hear the details of their experiences, and also to give an opportunity for those families to give their babies a legacy.

Something we hear all the time is that people had best laid plans for these babies who were due to be born, and obviously they hoped for them to be born healthy, but they were not able to give an identity or a legacy to that child. How lovely it feels to give them the opportunity to contribute something to the greater good in memory of their babies.

I thought I might just comment as well on the maternal perinatal mortality report for 2021 that was tabled in the last few weeks. Basically, it gives an indication about the figures of stillbirth, neonatal death and maternal death related to pregnancy here in South Australia. In terms of data collection, the most recent report that was tabled goes back a little bit so the figures that were tabled related to 2021.

We did see that in 2021 there were 143 stillbirths in South Australia, 40 neonatal deaths and one maternal death relating to pregnancy. Of course, we know that these figures are still way too high, that in South Australia 7.1 out of a thousand babies are born still and that is in non-Aboriginal communities. The figure is, of course, much higher in Aboriginal communities here in South Australia: a figure of 16.3 per a thousand babies born still in Aboriginal communities.

I think it does really highlight for us that it is necessary for governments to do more. Although Australia is very much seen as a leading country in terms of the supports provided and the research that has been conducted, there is still very much more to do, particularly in the hospital setting and the bereavement support space.

I think one of the things that has been really interesting, reading through our submissions as a committee, has been the themes that are so incredibly common. Those are themes from people living in regional communities, from people living in metropolitan Adelaide, from people giving birth at private hospitals, at public hospitals and, of course, they also span quite a breadth of time.

One of the things that was raised was the extensive costs related to the death of a child, whether it be a death certificate, whether it be the fees to bury the child and, of course, the fees to continue that gravesite for a period of time. I would like to put on record an acknowledgement for the Berri Barmera Council who just a few weeks ago actually moved a motion that they would waive fees for stillbirth and neonatal deaths for grave digging, as well as for infant deaths in their cemeteries.

The figure for the infant deaths was about $250, I believe, and then for child deaths I think around $375 or so. You can see that in proportion to a regional council that is not actually a significant figure perhaps in terms of a council's budget but does go a long way to recognising the really difficult circumstances and associated financial burdens that are placed on families after they lose a child.

I had the great privilege of speaking to the ABC about this wonderful work done by that regional council. I will be, throughout the process of this committee, speaking to other council-run cemeteries about what they can do to better support grieving families. I think that this is, in theory, a small step in terms of the cost for that council but of course goes a long way to recognising just the toll that it takes on a family to lose a baby or an infant, and I am really pleased to see that Berri Barmera Council have been leading that work.

Again, in the conversations I have heard about some really important work done by some of the other cemetery authorities. I will continue to look at the ways that we can best support grieving families, particularly with those costs in relation to the death of a child, in the best way that the government is able to support them. I want to thank everyone who has contributed to that work over the last few months. It has been a genuine privilege to read through those submissions.