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

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. Carers were trained in a short, six month program, and were recruited from long term unemployed young women from the same geographically disadvantaged catchment area as the hospital. In this paper, findings from the evaluation of the program are described and analysed. These include its implications for the postnatal care workers themselves and for the professionals involved in training and working with them. In addition, the implications for birthing women of a program using young, minimally trained carers are considered. Finally, the more general lessons for the training and ‘insertion’ of paid carers into domiciliary work with professionals are reflected on.