The Social Work department at King Edward Memorial Hospital has had a strong working relationship with Pregnancy Assistance for many years. Pregnancy assistance helps to support vulnerable women who are pregnant and parenting and visit KEMH for ante-natal and post-natal care. Many women who attend KEMH have numerous psycho social stressors and can often feel overwhelmed and vulnerable. Some of these stressors include homelessness, extreme poverty, isolation from family and friends, family and domestic violence, forensic issues and involvement with the department for child protection. Pregnancy Assistance has been a huge support to these women and the Social work department have referred many women to this service. Pregnancy Assistance has particularly helped the women who come into KEMH to birth from Bandyup. They provide the ladies with beautiful baby bundles and we have a driver who will pick up the items and bring them to the hospital for distribution to the ladies. I know these women are forever grateful for this support as they are unable to shop for their baby as other women in the community would. Their faces light up when they receive their baby bundles and they feel very privileged to have such kindness shown to them. The staff at Pregnancy Assistance are friendly, approachable and kind and will offer counselling, practical support and a kind word with a cup of tea or coffee for the women. Clients report back to the social workers that they have experienced warmth, care and nurturing from this service. Our Social workers rely on Pregnancy Assistance to help support these vulnerable women and we continue to work collaboratively and proactively to help the most disadvantaged in our society. I would like to thank Pregnancy Assistance for all the help they have given to my clients since 2012 when I first commenced working at KEMH. I look forward continuing to work with such a wonderful service. Ethna Richardson Social Worker KEMH Hope and Life
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