A New Postnatal Home Care Worker: Challenges for Training, Implementation and Policy

Abstract

The rise in paid care workers has not, until very recently, included carers specifically trained to provide domiciliary postnatal care. In 2002 a new occupation of domiciliary postnatal carers was introduced in the catchment area of a large metropolitan hospital in Adelaide, South Australia. The carers work with professional midwives to provide home-based postnatal support to women discharged early from hospital following childbirth.