We might have passed Mothers’ Day for another year – but keeping mothers and babies healthy during pregnancy and childbirth is still a huge issue in communities all over the world. In fact, improving maternal health is the Millennium Development Goals towards which the least progress has been made so far.

In general, Australia is one of the safest places in the world to give birth or to be born. But in many remote Indigenous communities, service providers face serious problems trying to provide effective, high-quality maternal healthcare in a supportive and culturally sensitive environment.

This week Amye, Adelaide, Stephen and Eleanor focus on the creative ways governments and community groups are overcoming these hurdles. Drawing on the firsthand experiences of midwives and students who have worked in remote communities, they look carefully at programmes that are really working to work out which approaches are the most successful, why, and how they can be adapted for future use.