Having a baby is one of life’s most wonderful events. Fortunately, Australia is one of the safest countries in the world for a baby to be born, but tragically about six babies are born still every day. Unfortunately, some migrant & refugee background women, particularly those coming as humanitarian arrivals to Australia, are among the most likely to experience stillbirth.

Our aim is to help migrant & refugee background women and the health care practitioners who care for them understand what they can do to reduce the risk of stillbirth.

Stillbirth prevention resources aimed at women from migrant & refugee backgrounds are therefore being developed by the Centre of Research Excellence in Stillbirth (Stillbirth CRE) to help us achieve that aim. Stillbirth CRE has partnered with Stronger Futures CRE at the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and Multicultural Centre for Women’s Health (MCWH) to work with migrant & refugee background women from Arabic, Dari, Dinka, and Karen-speaking communities.

As a part of the cultural adaptation of the Safer Baby Bundle project, we have had conversations with women and community members from those cultural groups about their knowledge, perception, and experience of stillbirth. We then followed up those conversations with questions about their educational and awareness needs to help prevent stillbirth.

Based on their feedback, we are currently developing resources in partnership with the community groups to ensure the resources developed meet the community’s needs and are also culturally sensitive.