The Jindera Country Women's Association is hoping to draw attention to deteriorating access to maternity services in rural areas, while celebrating 100 years of the Association in NSW this week.
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Jindera CWA president Beverly Blair said the the CWA of NSW was established a century ago to campaign for baby and women's health centres in the bush.
Ms Blair said the CWA had been instrumental in the opening of many such centres in early decades, but in more recent years there had been a decline of maternity services close to home for country women.
"This year Awareness Week is highlighting the need for improvement to maternity services in rural and regional NSW," she said.
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"They've cut out being able to have a baby in your country town, so you have to go to the city.
"And if you have other children you have to find someone to mind them ... sometimes you have to find other accommodation, there's obviously a cost factor for the family as well, plus the loneliness of being there by yourself.
"This has become quite a big issue now in country areas."
From tomorrow until Sunday, the Jindera CWA will celebrate the achievements and history of the CWA of NSW with a number of activities at the Jindera Pioneer Museum.
The museum grounds will come alive with a variety of games, crafts, workshops, talks and displays that reflect the bygone days of yesteryear.
Ms Blair said festivities would highlight how the CWA was in the early years, not how it currently is.
"It was somewhere for women to go off the farm and be together, and of course the knitting and the sewing and all that, and the cooking, became part of it," she said.
"But CWA today is far more than that, we're not just tea and scones anymore, we lobby for things with the government."
The CWA of NSW has been a campaigner for better medical, social, educational and recreational conditions and facilities for rural and regional families in NSW and has helped bring about major changes across the state in areas such as compulsory seat belt wearing and flashing speed signs in school zones.
The organisation continues to look for ways to remain relevant in today's changing world, including advocating for improved rural and regional maternal health services.
For event information, go to the museum's Facebook.
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Victoria Ellis
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
Victoria Ellis grew up on the Border and loves reporting for her home community. She is a University of Wollongong Journalism graduate. In 2018 Victoria was awarded the Bruce Gordon Scholarship for Journalism and completed a 10 week internship with WIN News Illawarra. In 2019 she was awarded The Border Mail's Cameron Thompson Scholarship, where she completed a three week internship, before taking up ongoing employment in 2021.
