Having a Child as an Indigenous Australian

Everyone knows that having a child is one of the hardest things that a woman ever endures in her lifetime, the stress of being a parent mixed with the hormonal and physical changes that your body has to undergo can be a lot for one person to handle. This is why the government and healthcare systems put different programs in place to help new moms cope with these changes. However, in many places around the world, support for women in the process of having a child can be quite hard to come by. Especially for poor countries or for women who struggle with poverty or are part of a minority. 

This is the case for many aborigional women living in Australia. Though most of the world sees Australia as a wealthy country, their aborigional communities are not seen in the same light. When it comes to maternity, these women aren't given any added support, if they’re getting any at all. Women of any type of minority should be given additional support because the struggles that they face can be so much worse and have a much stronger impact on the health of the child and the mother. Mental health during pregnancy and after birth can be a serious issue for some women. It happens to everyone and postpartum depression is a real concern for a lot of women. According to a study done between 1990 and 2013 of 40,000 indigenous children in Australia, there was a 4%-5% increase every year in the occurrence of mental health issues among mothers. These issues were seen to have a direct correlation between the location where the mother lived (in major cities or in more rural areas), her age, and her financial state. The study also concluded that indigenous women that developed mental health complications were more likely to have recurring problems during and after pregnancy.

Another study observing the academic achievements of indigenous students at the age of 5 vs their non-indigenous counterparts, indigenous students were twice as likely to score poorly on tests than non-indigenous students. They found that younger mothers, indigenous or not, were more likely to have a child with issues learning in the classroom. However, the study also concluded that indigenous children were also more likely to have trouble learning no matter the age of the parents. This was mostly due to the lack of support available to native students and their families, as well as other things like poverty and having a teenage mother.

In conclusion, I believe that indigenous families should be granted more support when it comes to having children. With the amount of additional pressures and hoops that they have to jump through just to get the same treatment as other families, and the struggles that they face in their personal lives that most other families in Australia don't have to face should be enough to get extra financial and emotional support.