Maternity and newborn – Clinical conversations

Our webinar provides background to the development of SCV's Extreme prematurity guidance and highlights the components and resources available including management flowcharts and parent information sheets.

A multidisciplinary panel of perinatal clinicians discusses the clinical, logistical and ethical challenges in caring for women and babies at 22-25 weeks’ gestation, and proposes strategies to ensure consistency in practice across all perinatal settings statewide to optimise outcomes.

This webinar explores Interventions for vaccine preventable infections (influenza, pertussis and hepatitis B) in pregnancy, presents research findings from three studies, and discusses opportunities for improvement in delivery of influenza, pertussis, and hepatitis B vaccinations and care to women and their infants to prevent infection during and post pregnancy in Victoria.

The Myths and Mysteries of Managing Third Trimester Fetal Growth Restriction.

5 May 2025

This webinar provides an overview of the SCV Perineal Protection Project highlighting the success of consumer engagement. We also spotlight the ACSQHC Third and Fourth Degree Perineal Tears Clinical Care Standard and provide an update on the outcomes of the SCV Better Births for Women Collaborative.

This clinical conversation focused on relevant clinical knowledge with respect to postnatal mental health, including prevention, early detection and interventions. It aimed to enhance shared understanding and clinical responsibility among health professionals to support the mental health and wellbeing of women, new parents, their families and babies.

April 2022

This webinar provides an overview of the SCV Perineal Protection Project highlighting the success of consumer engagement. We also spotlight the ACSQHC Third and Fourth Degree Perineal Tears Clinical Care Standard and provide an update on the outcomes of the SCV Better Births for Women Collaborative.

July 2023

During 2019 to 2021, Safer Care Victoria (SCV) teamed up with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and Victorian health services to improve outcomes for mothers and their babies, using the IHI’s proven Model for Improvement across two collaboratives. SCV worked in partnership with maternity services and tested and spread evidence-based care bundles to reduce third- and fourth-degree perineal tear rates and to reduce the rates of stillbirth.

The Maternity and Newborn Learning Health Network is committed to drive sustained improvements from previous SCV led large-scale maternity projects and invited two of those maternity services involved in SCV’s Better Births and Safer Baby collaboratives to share their lessons learned on sustaining these improvement initiatives.
 

Hear how Western Health has:

• used the learnings from IHI’s Model for Improvement to implement clinical practice change
• adapted the Women’s Healthcare Australasia Perineal Protection Bundle to develop their unique SUPPORT project
• developed an internal Perineal Dashboard as a reliable source of real-time data.

Hear how Monash Health has:

• effectively used the Stillbirth Centre for Research Excellence (CRE) Safer Baby Bundle to reduce avoidable stillbirths at their health service
• improved reporting and response to reduced fetal movements in pregnancy
• improved shared decision making about timing of birth.

Ultrasound in Preterm Birth Prevention – Cervical Length and Uterine Artery Assessment in Pregnancy Care

Ultrasound has a well-established role in optimising pregnancy outcomes for mothers and babies alike, with sonographers and radiologists playing a critical role in the provision of this care. Preterm birth (PTB) remains a leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality, and ultrasound makes a substantial contribution in reducing PTB rates, through: 

• Identifying women at risk of PTB by measuring the cervical length on the mid-trimester morphology scan. Many women with a short cervix on this scan have no other risk factors for PTB and would otherwise have missed the opportunity for preventative therapies such as vaginal progesterone and cervical cerclage; 

• Identifying women at risk of early-onset pre-eclampsia (a major cause of iatrogenic PTB) with assessment of resistance in the maternal uterine arteries at the time of the nuchal scan, as part of combined first-trimester screening for pre-eclampsia. 

This webinar will focus on the evidence, indications, techniques and practice tips for these sonographic evaluations, which are increasingly considered to be the standard of care in Australia.