Pregnancy, Birth & Baby Helpline is of Great Assistance to New Parents
Parents celebrating the arrival of a baby in the New Year are reminded about the Pregnancy, Birth & Baby Helpline – 1800 882 436.
View by date:
Previous MinistersPDF printable version of Helpline for new mothers proves popular (PDF 17 KB)
2 January 2011
Health Minister Tanya Plibersek said the number was a free 24-hour, seven day a week, telephone support service providing general information about pregnancy, birthing, post-natal care and parenting in the first 12 months.
“First time parents, particularly, always welcome the news that help is only a phone call away,” said Ms Plibersek.
“Since it commenced on 1 July 2010, the helpline has advised around 40,000 callers, who were mostly parents with crying babies, or parents concerned about their child’s health and feeding.”
Ms Plibersek said in the past year the number of calls from the line from people in NSW was 11,824, Victoria (8,659), Queensland (5,917), South Australia (5,629), West Australia (5,371), ACT (1,541), Tasmania (724) and the Northern Territory (288.)
“The helpline can offer assistance — from the early signs of pregnancy to advice about early labour and screening tests, to helpful hints for parents in the first few weeks, to safe sleep patterns, to growth and learning in babies.
Ms Plibersek said the Pregnancy, Birth & Baby helpline and website are an initiative of the Australian Government to increase access to quality health information for all Australians.
If necessary, the helpline can make referrals to maternal and child health services, hospitals, and even drug and alcohol services. In case of emergency people should call 000.
Help with accessing large documents
When accessing large documents (over 500 KB in size), it is recommended that the following procedure be used:
- Click the link with the RIGHT mouse button
- Choose "Save Target As.../Save Link As..." depending on your browser
- Select an appropriate folder on a local drive to place the downloaded file
Attempting to open large documents within the browser window (by left-clicking)
may inhibit your ability to continue browsing while the document is
opening and/or lead to system problems.
Help with accessing PDF documents
To view PDF (Portable Document Format) documents, you will need to have a PDF reader installed on your computer. A number of PDF readers are available through the Australian Government Information Management Office (AGIMO) Web Guide website.