Johanna Fahey is employed as a community midwife, but she often finds herself in other roles – social worker, counsellor, nurse and outreach support contact.
The Plenty Valley Community Health employee is the team leader of the Healthy Mothers Healthy Babies project, which supports new mothers when they leave hospital.
Her clients are usually mothers in need – refugees, young mothers, and drug and alcohol-dependent women. She visits them in their homes to teach them how to breastfeed and take care of their babies on their own.
“A lot of mothers like me going out to visit because they are in isolation,” Fahey says. “Many are refugees and don’t know the country or the language. They don’t like communicating.”
She says if the mother and baby are healthy, they are usually sent home from hospital after two days, and 24 hours if it is their second child.
Fahey says the next hurdle after birth is learning to breastfeed. The breast milk comes a couple of days after the birth, which can be an emotional time for the new mother.
“The baby demands feeding every hour or two, so the mother has an unsettled baby and it can be very difficult,” she says. “Especially having gone through labour, then having baby cry every so often.”
With experience as a neonatal and post-natal nurse, Fahey has worked with new parents for years. She says if the mother is prepared, then they can usually cope. But if they are not aware, “then they throw in the towel”.
Fahey talks mothers through the breastfeeding process – “it is not as simple as it seems”. She gently demonstrates how to get into the process with ease.
“A majority pick it up and stick with it,” she says. “I’ve had a very small percentage that can’t do it for some reason; but it’s important to be encouraging.”
Entering people’s homes at such an intimate time, and working with isolated people in the community, Fahey has often found that families need more than just a hand with breastfeeding.
“I’ve gone into a couple of difficult situations,” she says. “One family had four children not at school – from five years of age up until nine or 10.”
Fahey says the family had migrated from Iran and had not received the right information about school enrolments.
She then worked with crisis group Whittlesea Community Connections to get the children enrolled in school.
Fahey says this is one of the things she loves about her work – she never knows where each visit will take her.
“What I can do is give them some education,” she says. “Not just the basics, but about the community and resources.”
This week is World Breastfeeding Week. Details: visit the Australian Breastfeeding Association at breastfeeding.asn.au.
