Election 2023
In the lead up to the election, we asked the major political parties to outline their policies about maternity and maternal wellbeing.
We share their responses below.
Important note: We (Birth Trauma Aotearoa) haven’t checked or altered these responses in any way, we’ve just cut & pasted their replies.
Parties had a 200 word limit for each question.
Here’s the questions we asked:
- If elected, how will your party improve Maternal Mental Health support?
- If elected, how will your party support maternal wellbeing across Aotearoa?
- If elected, how will you enable equity of service within the maternity sector and across maternal mental health services?
- If elected, how will you improve resourcing for the maternity sector?
Here’s what each party said (Parties are listed alphabetically):
ACT -
If elected, how will your party improve Maternal Mental Health support?
Each year, the Government spends about $1.5 billion - $2 billion on mental health. Despite this expenditure, almost nobody is satisfied with the state of mental health and addiction services. ACT would transform the Mental Health and Wellbeing Commission into Mental Health and Addiction New Zealand (MHANZ). MHANZ would serve three key purposes:
- To stringently verify and catalogue private providers of mental healthcare. - To connect those private providers with patients seeking the specialised method of care offered by specific providers. An example of this could be specialty maternal mental health providers.
- To fund the care that the patient has identified is best suited to their needs. This will allow patients to choose the funded care that suits them best. It also affords MHANZ the ability to put the patient into contact with additional health services as required, providing wraparound care for that individual.
If elected, how will your party support maternal wellbeing across Aotearoa?
New Zealand’s health system is in crisis. New Zealanders are missing out on the most basic levels of care because of over regulation and unnecessary red tape. ACT has identified the health workforce crisis as the foremost obstacle inhibiting New Zealander’s, including mothers, from accessing healthcare in a timely manner.
ACT has developed a health workforce policy to address these shortcomings. ACT’s policy will:
- Create an easier pathway for doctors trained in comparable overseas jurisdictions to practise in New Zealand. Currently, even a top Harvard doctor would have to be supervised for 6-18 months before being allowed to independently practise.
- Increase GP funding by 13%, the equivalent of 2.5 million GP visits per year.
- Enable physician assistants to take on fewer complex tasks to take pressure off GPs.
- Give the Minister of Health the ability to override unnecessary red tape and bureaucracy.
- Increase the resilience of the healthcare system with intelligent forecasting of future requirements, improving upon current simplistic models.
These policies take steps to ensure that New Zealanders, including mothers, can access better care when it is needed most.
If elected, how will you enable equity of service within the maternity sector and across maternal mental health services?
- ACT’s approach to the provision of healthcare services in New Zealand is one which respects the inherent dignity of the individual. ACT is committed to improving healthcare for all New Zealanders regardless of their identity or heritage. ACT will remove the race-based healthcare system which has been implemented by Labour and the Greens and remove the postcode lottery which has impacted health outcomes for rural New Zealanders.
Alongside ACT’s health workforce policy ACT is committed to the implementation of a medicines strategy in New Zealand. Increases in targeted medicines provisions will be to the benefit of all New Zealanders. ACT was also the driving force behind the implementation of a rural health strategy in the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act 2022. This represents the first step to ending health inequities between rural New Zealanders, including new mothers, and their urban counterparts.
If elected, how will you improve resourcing for the maternity sector?
As mentioned in response to question number two, ACT’s health workforce policy will improve resourcing for the maternity sector. It will achieve this by removing barriers preventing qualified overseas practitioners from practicing in New Zealand, allowing the Minister of Health to target red tape, and funding General Practitioners to ensure that New Zealander’s can actually get a GP appointment.
These policies will ensure a better resourced and staffed maternity healthcare sector in New Zealand.
GREEN -
If elected, how will your party improve Maternal Mental Health support?
The Green Party is committed to improving maternal mental health support – we acknowledge that too many new mothers and parents experience perinatal distress, and that suicide is the leading cause of deaths among pregnant women and new mums. This cannot go on- we need better mental health support for new and expectant mothers.
This past term the Green Party was proud to successfully campaign on the inclusion of birth injuries in the ACC scheme with Birth Trauma Aotearoa. This means that new parents can get the tailored healthcare and rehabilitation after sustaining an injury through birth. If elected, we’ll ensure mental health support is available through ACC following a traumatic birth, regardless of whether the birthing parent has also experienced a physical injury.
We’ll also expand dedicated post-natal community mental health services and ensure maternal mental health is properly resourced within the Women’s Health Strategy. We’ll boost funding and pay for midwives, so they have more capacity to identify mental health concerns and work with patients. This will ensure everyone can get the support they need during those crucial early years.
If elected, how will your party support maternal wellbeing across Aotearoa?
We believe one of the best ways we can support maternal and whānau wellbeing during the first 1,000 days is with better income support for families – When these early years are a time of stress for whānau, it can have long-term consequences for our kids and their wellbeing. Our Income Guarantee is our plan to lift families out of poverty and ensure everyone can have a decent life and afford life’s essentials even when times are tough. We will reform Working for Families to:
- Provide ALL new families (regardless of income) with a Best Start payment of $140 each week for all children under 3.
- A family-top up payment for parents and caregivers of $215 week for the first child, and $135 a week for every other child with a fairer approach to abatement.
We will also advocate for extending paid parental leave to support whanau to be able to make parenting choices based on what’s best for everyone in the family and support shared parenting and attachment.
We need to ensure whānau have stability, and are able to build relationships of support with friends, family and we have well supported culturally diverse health providers to walk alongside them during their pregnancy and early years, and that specialist services are available when needed.
We recognise that just like in our older years through superannuation, the very first years of a new baby’s life are a time when every family needs extra support – our policy gives parents and caregivers the income they need to give their children the best possible start in life.
If elected, how will you enable equity of service within the maternity sector and across maternal mental health services?
Equitable maternal and health services are essential to better outcomes for Māori and Pasifika whānau. The Green Party will prioritise kaupapa Māori approaches and ensure health equity is realised as a key focus in the Women’s Health Strategy.
We’ll ensure a fair funding model for midwives that prioritises high quality maternal care, and more services that support families during pregnancy and following childbirth, prioritising rural areas and low-income communities where there are currently few in-person services. We’ll also fund more post-natal mental health services in communities so parents can access more support in the early days of their children’s lives.
If elected, how will you improve resourcing for the maternity sector?
The Green Party will finalise and resource the Women’s Health Strategy, including implementing a fair funding model for midwives that prioritises high quality care and increases social services during pregnancy and following childbirth. We have stood with midwives in their battle for pay equity and a funding model that supports good practice for many years now. We will continue to prioritise this essential work.
LABOUR -
If elected, how will your party improve Maternal Mental Health support?
Labour believes that supporting maternal mental health during a child’s first 2,000 days is critical to the long-term emotional, mental, and physical wellbeing of their tamariki.
In 2022, the Labour Government invested $10.1 million over four years in maternal mental health. The funding fills gaps in care identified in the maternal mental health stocktake and will result in more support in the regions. The package will support approximately 700 people per year by the time it is fully implemented. To guide implementation, a Maternal and Whānau Mental Health and Wellbeing Enhancements Procurement Plan is in place. This outlines an approach to support whānau to access coordinated mental health and wellbeing care, including bereavement, workforce education, and resource development.
Labour is the first government to take mental health seriously. In six years, we’ve made the biggest ever investment to build a solid foundation for a whole new mental health system. We rolled out the Access and Choice programme and other initiatives to provide free mental health support to Kiwis. Labour has committed to expanding primary mental health services to 3.5 million New Zealanders if re-elected. All of these services are available to pregnant people.
If elected, how will your party support maternal wellbeing across Aotearoa?
Labour has embarked on a transformation of health and social services for whānau, mothers and babies, building an integrated approach across health, called Kahu Taurima. It aims to expand integrated services so that families find the system easier to navigate and providers are funded so they can help people with complex needs.
The early focus areas of Kahu Taurima are, in collaboration with stakeholders, exploring and developing new models of care to achieve quality maternity and first 2,000-day care for all whānau, focused models of care for Pacific, Māori and people with disabilities, as well as developing bereavement pathways.
Improving community-based oral health services, and national consistency for oral surgery for children, expanding the Well Child Tamariki Ora enhanced support pilots, supporting place-based initiatives, and implementing the health sector agreements in the Oranga Tamariki Action Plan, are other activities we have driven forward. We’ve also ensured that birth injuries are covered by ACC.
Labour is committing to four weeks Paid Partner’s Leave. The new scheme will be phased in from 1 July 2024 and leave can be taken either concurrently or consecutively with the primary carer. Labour already extended Paid Parental Leave to 26 weeks.
If elected, how will you enable equity of service within the maternity sector and across maternal mental health services?
It’s important that we make sure that the midwifery and maternity care workforce reflect the diversity of the mothers, babies and whānau they care for. Equity is at the heart of everything we do in health, including Kahu Taurima.
In July, the Labour Government announced investment of $74 million over the next two years to support 40 hauora Māori partners and five Pacific partners. There will also be funded initiatives to improve access to maternal mental health and wellbeing care, including those who experience bereavement, through the development of solutions informed by whānau voice.
If re-elected, Labour will implement the women’s health strategy to ensure quality care is provided for all women. The strategy sets out the long-term priorities that will guide health entities towards equity and healthy futures for all groups of women, including people who are pregnant.
In June, the Government launched a new mobile health van in Auckland. This van provides an accessible way for hāpu māmā to receive antenatal immunisations, cervical screening, and other health checks. This van allows vaccinators to park outside a home, so they can be right where needed, without intruding inside.
If elected, how will you improve resourcing for the maternity sector?
The Labour Government provided the largest ever funding boost for primary maternity services in Budget 2020. We invested $242 million over four years so maternity service providers, women and their babies can receive more support.
The Primary Maternity Services Notice has been upgraded to more equitably fund travel and provision of maternity care. Also, new graduate midwives, those coming back into the workforce, and other midwives who need some extra help, now have access to a coach - an experienced DHB midwife who can provide both clinical and wider support.
Labour is aware that workforce issues are significant within the maternity sector. As part of our Workforce Action Plan, we have specific initiatives to improve training, recruitment and retention for midwives, such as Te Ara ō Hine – Tapu Ora programme, which has seen successes since its launch in 2021 in supporting Māori and Pacific midwives through their training. If re-elected, we will continue with initiatives such as this, and Kahu Taurima, to work with the maternity sector to improve workforce issues.
NATIONAL -
If elected, how will your party improve Maternal Mental Health support?
Poor maternal mental health is an important issue with thousands of mothers effected by it every year. National will work towards providing all mothers the mental health care they need. As part of supporting maternal mental health, National will introduce the 3 Day Stay which will allow all mothers a minimum of three days in a postnatal facility after the birth of their child.
If elected, how will your party support maternal wellbeing across Aotearoa?
National will allow parents to split their paid parental leave however they feel is best for them. This will allow families to make their own decisions on how to best allocate the time and care that is needed for new born babies.
If elected, how will you enable equity of service within the maternity sector and across maternal mental health services?
National’s plan for both the 3 day stay and paternal/maternal leave will be accessible to all parents across New Zealand. National believes the biggest barrier to timely care is our health workforce crisis and will make solving that crisis our number one health priority if elected.
If elected, how will you improve resourcing for the maternity sector?
No response to this question
TE PĀTI MĀORI -
If elected, how will your party improve Maternal Mental Health support?
There is not one single solution to improving maternal mental health, we must first of all acknowledge it’s complexity in addressing the array of determinants contributing to the issue. One of those factors is poverty, which we can take the burden off of parents with easy fixes.
Now more so than ever, poverty is grappling our nation. The stress of ensuring you’re able to support yourself as a hapū māmā whilst also the financial pressures of ensuring you have the necessities to support pēpi are now as tough as ever. Rising costs for kai, rising prices at the pump are all factors that contribute to this.
Te Pāti Māori is committed to removing GST off of all kai and making your first $30K tax-free. This will put at least another $120 back into your pocket to help ease the financial burden.
When it comes to supporting whānau whilst supporting our psychologically unwell parent, we must allow a whānau based approach to care intervention. We have committed to bolstering a mental health sector which will help our unwell parent whilst also ensuring that the support and resource is available to facilitate whānau based care.
The wellbeing of parents is central to the wellbeing of our communities.
If elected, how will your party support maternal wellbeing across Aotearoa?
Te Pāti Māori is all about Mana Motuhake and self-determination. Maternal wellbeing stems from the ability to have a roof over your head, some pūtea in your pocket, a supporting and thriving whānau and community, kai on the table and the ability to love and be loved.
Our party leaves no one behind. We’ll focus on bread and butter issues to ensure everyone is able to thrive.
Referring back to the redistribution of wealth, ensuring your money is kept in your pocket empowers whānau to be able to put kai on the table. It will help support with the costs of rent or mortgage payments, it will support whānau to pay the bills to ensure the environment where pēpi is raised is warm and thriving.
It’s about supporting parents to be able to support themselves. No one likes relying on others, let’s bring oranga to the whānau so they can make their own decisions.
If elected, how will you enable equity of service within the maternity sector and across maternal mental health services?
Te Pāti Māori absolutely acknowledges the need for equity based policy to achieve oranga for Aotearoa. Our policy platform is based off data which paints the picture that the government has continued to commit to nothing transformational, and particularly leaves Māori and Pacifica at inequitable levels of health outcome in Aotearoa.
When looking at statistics, Māori wāhine are less likely to have midwifery care throughout their pregnancy, more likely to book late or not at all. More vulnerable to sudden unexplained death in infancy. This is a clear inditement that there is a lack of equitable support available for the maternity sector in Aotearoa.
Te Pāti Māori has committed to defending Te Aka Whai Ora and significantly increase its funding. This will enable the health authority to specifically support initiatives to increase access to maternal support for whānau Māori. This could remove barriers such as cost, inaccessibility, maintain continuity of care and ensure the system is free of systemic and institutionalised racism.
If elected, how will you improve resourcing for the maternity sector?
The current health system including the maternity sector has been plagued by years of under investment. Subsequently we are losing the workforce at unforeseeable rates and are not training to sustainable levels.
We will commit to investing $1-billion each year into the training of our health workforce to respond to an aging population. Ensure that the primary healthcare is freely accessible for all those earning under $60K, easing the burden of secondary healthcare.
This will include significant investment into the maternity sector, to help ease the stress and ensure that our whānau have skilled workforce around them.