Charles Darwin University has received $5 million to research birthing support services for First Nations mothers and babies at two sites in the Northern Territory and one in New South Wales for the next five years.

The university’s Molly Wardaguga Research Centre director and Indigenous health Professor of Yvette Roe said CDU’s Birthing on Country program had supported Aboriginal controlled health services and other partners to establish and evaluate demonstration birthing services in Alice Springs and Galiwin’ku, as well as Nowra in NSW.

She said the $5 million in funding would be used to research service’s clinical, economic and social impacts.

“This funding helps to solidify the work we have been doing with our community partners to test the translation of a clinically and cost-effective service model in an urban setting into geographically diverse locations,” Prof Roe said.

“The Birthing on Country program is informed by First Nations knowledge, and at its core, it is about maternal health justice. It supports a First Nations workforce trained to care for mothers and babies and focuses on improving the two-way cultural knowledge transfer in the birthing system.”

She said First Nations women were twice as likely to have a preterm birth and almost four times more likely to die during childbirth compared to other Australian women.

“Our goal in these three demonstration sites is to reduce preterm babies (babies born too soon). This has already been done in an urban setting where a study has found a 38 per cent reduction in preterm babies,” she said.

“Preterm birth is one of the largest causes of stillbirth, infant and child mortality, and a significant contributor to lifelong disability and chronic diseases in First Nations Australians.”

Over the five years of the grant, the Molly Wardaguga Research Centre will establish a Birthing on Country translation research centre to expand the program. Prof Roe said.