'I felt unimportant': women beg inquiry for real change

Key points

• Hundreds of submissions to a national Senate inquiry into women's health describe severe pain being dismissed and a postnatal system that fails mothers. Adelaide Mums and Babies Clinic co-founder Rhiannon Smith says recovering mothers face physical, emotional and sleep challenges that current care does not address.
• The clinic and Birth Trauma Australia are calling for postnatal care to be extended to at least 12 months and properly funded. Birth Trauma Australia founder Amy Dawes says many women doubted whether the inquiry would bring change.
• The committee will hold its first public hearing in Canberra on October 13.