Australia's largest abortion provider says its supply of face masks and hand sanitiser for carrying out surgical abortions will only last two more weeks after a number of orders from private personal protective equipment (PPE) providers were cancelled or refused in the coronavirus pandemic. In one instance, a private company cancelled an order from Marie Stopes Australia (MSA) on the basis it was reserving supplies for "health professionals". The Australian government has also refused to suppl

There has been a 20% surge in callers to national Australian support group Perinatal Anxiety and Depression Australia (PANDA) as families grapple with social isolation in the new coronavirus pandemic. The helpline, which is now sourcing retired volunteers to meet current demand, is a “live thermometer” for how parents across Australia are coping, according to its chief executive Julie Borninkhof. "We have seen a significant increase in the number of new and expecting mums and dads across Aus

Sydney model agency owner Brigitte Warne’s health rapidly deteriorated after she came off the oral contraceptive pill to start a family. She developed cystic acne, her hair began falling out, and “vicious cycles of severe anxiety” made her withdraw from her friends and family. Doctors gave her antibiotics for her skin, but it took crying and pleading until the fourth doctor she asked agreed to run tests. “We did a full hormone test and my testosterone levels were actually off the scale,” she sai

J, who lives in Cambodia’s southern province of Takeo, wasn’t sure who to turn to for advice on her unplanned pregnancy. She couldn’t afford to have another child, and knew she wanted an abortion. “I felt afraid to discuss it with my family but I told my sister,” she told BuzzFeed News through an interpreter. “My husband supported my decision because our baby is one year and five months old, so we spend a lot of money already.”

The hundreds of women living with pain and complications after they were fitted with transvaginal mesh devices rejoiced last year when they won a seven-year landmark class action case against Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

Doctors in Australia can already object on religious grounds to providing contraception and abortion. In fact, several doctors have signs in their offices outlining that they will not see patients about contraception, abortion, sterilisation or in-vitro fertilisation. Religious hospitals, too, can turn away patients with these needs. But that hasn’t stopped the government moving forward with its religious discrimination bill.

Freya Bundey, her partner and their six-month-old twins have spent the summer holidays dodging fire and smoke. “Life is challenging with twins and this summer made it really hard,” the 30-year-old told BuzzFeed News. “It was really difficult not being able to leave the house and being cooped up, and that is really hard for small babies that are just starting to explore the world.” Bundey spent the end of December helping her mother pack up her childhood home in Kangaroo Valley in the Shoalhave

Kai Hodgkin is a midwife in Canberra, where the air has become some of the most polluted in the world during Australia’s ongoing catastrophic bushfire season. Staff at the hospital where she works have this week been wearing face masks indoors, to protect themselves against the smoke creeping into the wards and even into birthing suites. “We were giving masks to everyone who has left us and sending these brand new parents and babies out into the smoke,” Hodgkin told BuzzFeed News.

A couple of hours into the new decade, while many people were stumbling home to bed after celebrating New Year's Eve, Dr Steve Robson was driving through a "smoky hell" to a Canberra hospital to deliver a baby. "I had the little spotlight that you use to look at things and it went through the smoke and we all realised that in this birth suite, this baby was born into bushfire smoke," the obstetrician told BuzzFeed News.

The Australian government is pushing ahead with its proposed religious discrimination laws, and doctors and lawyers are concerned the legislation could allow practitioners to deny or delay medical care when it comes to reproductive health. But as signs in GP's offices provided to BuzzFeed News show, doctors are already refusing reproductive healthcare under the current guidelines, before a patient has even walked into an appointment. Laura — who asked to use a pseudonym to protect her privacy

Sydney woman Elle — a pseudonym to protect her privacy — is in recovery for anorexia nervosa, but it took her years to talk to her doctor, friends or family about regularly chewing and spitting out food. "It is like some people just interpret it as coward's bulimia, or pointlessly wasting food for no good reason," the 32-year-old told BuzzFeed News. "There is such limited understanding about the true complexity and pain associated with it."

Last month more than 1,350 Australian women suffering debilitating pain and complications from transvaginal mesh devices won a landmark class action, but New Zealand patients say they are being denied comparable justice and compensation.

Hundreds of women living in pain after they were fitted with transvaginal mesh devices have won a landmark class action case against Ethicon, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. Seven years after a class action involving more than 1,350 women began, the Federal Court's Justice Anna Katzmann handed down a searing judgement in which she found Ethicon had acted negligently, and that patients should be compensated.

Hannah Dahlen will never forget when she was a student midwife and a woman came to the hospital, the imprint of a studded football boot on her pregnant belly. “We got him out of the room and we said [to her] ‘we need to report what he did to you and you need to find safety for yourself and we can help you with that, and think about the child coming into this’,” Dahlen, now a professor of midwifery and director of higher degree studies at Western Sydney University, told BuzzFeed News.

In 2013, the Birthing in Our Community Service was established in Brisbane by two Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations and a tertiary maternity hospital. A study published last week in peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet found the service achieved a “significant’’ reduction in preterm birth compared to hospital-based tertiary maternity services. Birthing on country involves Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, families and communities in its design, leadership and i

A woman with an unwanted pregnancy to a violent partner, who doesn’t have enough money to pay a private provider for a surgical abortion; a woman whose period is two weeks late; a woman who is over 12 weeks gestation with an unwanted pregnancy in a rural area who had to travel to Melbourne for an abortion; a single mother with mental health concerns and an unintended pregnancy at an early gestation; a woman looking for a doctor to insert a hormonal contraceptive intrauterine device (IUD).

The biggest chunk of money in the government’s women’s health strategy released this month was $20 million for research into ovarian cancer which prioritises early detection and finding a cure. The government has promised $32.6 million to make breast cancer scans more affordable, saving patients up to $1,500 per scan. It has promised $47 million in Medicare subsidies for breast cancer MRIs, a $20 million investment in the Olivia Newton-John Cancer Research Institute for research into advanced br

More than 700,000 Australian women have endometriosis, in which cells similar to those that line the uterus grow outside of the uterus, leading to all sorts of symptoms including debilitating pain. Up to a quarter of women with endometriosis are asymptomatic, but most experience dysmenorrhea (painful periods), chronic pelvic pain and painful sexual intercourse, and between 30% and 50% of endometriosis patients struggle with infertility. Endometriosis and infertility “go hand in hand” says Melbou

Unlike Labor's $9.5 million sexual and reproductive health strategy announced last month, which promises cheaper and better access to long-acting reversible contraception and abortion, Hunt has announced cash for four Victoria-based organisations that mostly help couples conceive. "More than $4 million over four years will go to four family planning organisations: Victorian Assisted Reproductive Treatment Authority (VARTA), the Ovulation Method Research and Reference Centre of Australia (Bill

"I was the loving partner of Naomi Williams," Michael Lampe began his statement on the final day of the coronial inquest into his partner's death. "I had no idea anything like this would ever happen to me and I had no idea I would ever be sitting here in this courtroom today. It just doesn’t seem real. It’s just three years ago I was celebrating Christmas in 2015 with Naomi. Life was almost perfect."