Maternal and child health nursing services: Perspectives of parents

Western Australia's history of maternal and child health nursing service provision dates back to the early part of the 20th century and forms part of an Australia-wide network of these services (Kruske and Grant 2012). When the Western Australian service was established, the state's maternal mortality rate was 4.2/1000 live births and one-in-eight babies died within their first year of life. Multidisciplinary child health services, with maternal and child health nurses (MCHNs) at the forefront delivering 'well' maternal and child health care continue to this day, contributing to Australia's broadly sound developmental health and child wellbeing performance (Schmied et al. 2008) which is reflected in Western Australia (AIHW 2008).