‘Walking my baby back home’ - Policy and Practice in Health Services and Single Parent Families

The position of single parent families in Australia is examined from a historical perspective, and this is a prelude to a discussion of service provision in maternity hospitals and Baby Health Centres in New South Wales, which are now staffed under the auspices of the Community Health Program. The paper is concerned with issues raised by criteria used to predict child abuse. These criteria are examined from two methodological perspectives; the first applies to the welfare critiques of social control to health service delivery, and the second is an epidemiological critique that notes an extremely high error rate in predicting child abuse at one maternity hospital.

Some data from the New South Wales Maternal/Perinatal Statistics Collection on low birthweight and hospital status is used to discuss some implications of this critique related to service delivery and social class of both providers and recipients of health services.