Labour of Love: Examining Birthing and Health Care
Series
Where
When
Friday, 3 Mar 2023, 03:00pm - 04:00pm
Event Status
Bookings open

Unpick the ways Australia’s healthcare system could better serve pregnant and birthing people with a panel of perinatal health writers and experts.
About
Last year, more than 300,000 children were born in Australia, yet systems in place for childbirth remain opaque and often discriminatory.
For M/OTHER, the Wheeler Centre brings together a panel of perinatal health experts and creatives to explore the disparity between birthing expectations and reality, the birthing body, structural healthcare barriers faced by First Nations communities, and why mental health care for new parents so often falls short.
Combining their personal experience with years of research and expertise in the fields of perinatal health, this panel features author of The Cost of Labour, Natalie Kon-Yu; nurse and Vice Chancellor’s Fellow at RMIT, Dr Ruth De Souza; and Karinda Taylor, CEO at First Peoples’ Health and Wellbeing.
Together with feminist writer and organiser Karen Pickering, they will navigate the intersections between pregnancy, birthing and healthcare for a multi-faceted discussion of the contemporary birthing experience.
This conversation may include reference to difficult topics, such as mental health, reproductive rights, and childbirth. If you need assistance with any of these issues, you can learn more and seek advice via the Centre of Perinatal Excellence (COPE), Perintal Anxiety & Depression Australia (PANDA) and Beyond Blue.
Tickets
Tickets for this event are $15 full price and $10 concession, with a Pay What You Wish option available. Advance bookings are essential.
Children under the age of two do not require a ticket and can sit in their guardian’s lap. For children aged 2-12, please book a free children’s ticket so that we may reserve a seat for them.
This event will also be live streamed, available on this page at the event start time. Bookings are not required. If you are tuning into the live stream and wish to help enable the Wheeler Centre to keep presenting accessible and low-cost events, you are able to support us with a tax-deductible donation here.
Accessibility

Wheelchair accessible

Accessible toilets available
Please notify us of all access requirements when booking online so we can assist you with your visit. If you require further information, please contact reception on 03 9094 7800 or ticketing@wheelercentre.com.
Official Bookseller
The official bookseller for M/OTHER is Neighbourhood Books.
About M/Other
M/OTHER is a weekend of fearless conversation about the ways ‘motherhood’ is experienced, portrayed and labelled by those who mother, have been mothered, wish they were mothers, do not identify as mothers, cannot or do not want to mother, and by society at-large.
Featuring

Natalie Kon-yu is a writer, academic and editor whose work has been published nationally and internationally. She is the co-commissioning editor of #Me Too: Stories from the Australian Women’s Movement (Picador, 2019), Mothers and Others: Why Not All Women are Mothers and All Mothers are Not the S... Read more

Dr Ruth De Souza is a 2020 RMIT Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, based in the School of Art. A highly experienced multidisciplinary educator, researcher and consultant, specialising in birth, cultural safety and the interface of digital technologies within CALD communities. Ruth has a background in nursi... Read more

Karinda Taylor is a Wamba Wamba woman from North West of Victoria where she was born and raised. Karinda is the Chief Executive Officer at First Peoples’ Health and Wellbeing, a trauma informed, culturally safe Aboriginal health service, made up of comprehensive primary care, mental health and tra... Read more

Karen Pickering is a feminist writer and organiser. Her previous work includes running the events Cherchez La Femme and Girls On Film Festival, writing the books About Bloody Time and Doing It, and her next book on motherhood shock and the resulting trauma will be published by Pantera Press. She is ... Read more
Watch, Listen, Read

Listen
Sophie Cunningham: This Devastating Fever
31 Jan 2023

Read
Hot Desk Extract: Hope to Die
24 Jan 2023

Listen
Andrew Sean Greer: Less is Lost
24 Jan 2023

Read
Programming a weekend of fearless conversation
19 Jan 2023

Read
Hot Desk Extract: Impossible Figures
17 Jan 2023

Listen
Stephanie Alexander at Montalto
16 Jan 2023