About MCRMC
WHO WE ARE
The Multicultural Centre for Respectful Maternity Care (MCRMC) is a consumer-led advocacy organisation. We work for equitable, culturally safe and respectful maternity care for migrant, refugee and culturally and linguistically diverse women and families in Australia.
We are founded and governed by migrant mothers who have used the Australian maternity system. Lived experience is the starting point for every decision - not an add-on.
Too many migrant and culturally diverse women still meet late antenatal care, language barriers, racism and a system that was not designed with them in mind. Models that work — continuity of care, professional interpreters, bicultural workers and group pregnancy care — still exist in only a handful of places.
We collaborate with multicultural communities, professional colleges, health services, researchers and government. We do not speak for First Nations maternity leadership. That work is sovereignty-led. We learn from it and partner only where invited.
MISSION
To advance equitable, culturally safe, trauma-informed and respectful maternity care for migrant, refugee and culturally diverse women and families, led by those with lived experience, and to influence systems, policy, research and practice so that dignity and cultural safety become the standard of care.
VISION
A maternity system in which every migrant, refugee and culturally diverse woman is seen, heard and respected — with continuity of care, language support, and freedom from discrimination or cultural erasure.
WHAT WE STAND FOR
Cultural safety and anti-racism
Care must honour cultural, religious and linguistic identity. Racism and cultural erasure are clinical and human-rights issues.
Access, continuity and equity
Migrant, refugee and culturally diverse women should be able to start care early and be offered a known midwife or carer through pregnancy, birth and the weeks after.
Data, research and evidence
Australia still cannot see maternity experiences clearly by cultural and linguistic background. That gap hides harm and blocks funding.
Workforce and system change
Midwives, doctors and students need cultural safety and trauma-informed training built into everyday practice, not an optional workshop.
Community leadership
Peer support, education and leadership by migrant and culturally diverse families. Solutions are designed with, not for, the people affected.
HOW WE WORK
- Lived experience leads.Cultural safety, anti-racism and trauma-informed practice.
- We convene organisations. We do not compete with them for the same service funding.
- Evidence sits beside stories.
- No one has to share their pain to belong.
- We do not speak for First Nations maternity leadership.
Steering Committee
MCRMC is guided by a core Steering Committee of migrant and culturally diverse parents. Members who wish to be listed appear here with a photo and a short biography of their choosing. Several Steering Committee members from various cultural backgrounds are not publicly listed.
If you would like to be a Steering Committee member, email info@mcrmc.org.au. See all people and members → /our-people
Chandi de Fonseka
Steering Committee member
Chandi de Fonseka is a migrant mother who knows the quiet gap between arriving with hope and trying to find maternity care in a new country. She believes no mother should feel alone at that time, and that every woman should feel supported, understood, and that she belongs.
Pushpa Leela
Steering Committee member & Co-founder
Pushpa is a migrant mother and Early Childhood Teacher dedicated to child wellbeing. She advocates for culturally safe maternity foundations.
Shani Weiss
Steering Committee member
Melbourne migrant mother of two. She brings lived experience in raising children within a new country and cultural health system.
Nurit Kopolovich Hadad
Steering Committee member
Child and Family Health Nurse advocating for respectful and safe care. Focuses on help mothers feel heard and comfortable in healthcare.
Tomomi Baudys
Steering Committee member
Mother of two Japanese–Czech Australian boys and dental technician. Dedicated to sharing lived birth experiences as a migrant woman.
Dr Ishita Akhter
Steering Committee member
Researcher and advocate for CALD women's maternity care. PhD in Engineering from Melbourne Uni. Focuses on patient-reported experiences.
Mele Topou
Steering Committee member
Biography coming soon.
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Dr Rebecca Li
Policy Advisor
Dr Rebecca Li is a FRANZCOG obstetrician and gynaecologist at Campbelltown Public and Private Hospitals and an AGES fellow. She is bilingual in English and Mandarin. Her work on cultural safety in maternity care is also shaped by her own high-risk pregnancy and preterm birth.
Thilini Weerasingha
Policy Advisor
Thilini is a registered nurse from Sri Lanka, a former Senior Lecturer in Nursing, and a PhD researcher at Griffith University. Her research focuses on maternity care for culturally and linguistically diverse women in Australia. She brings clinical, academic and multicultural experience to the Policy Advisory Group, and works so that migrant and refugee women are respected, heard and safe in their care.
Uthpala Ferdinando
Steering Committee member
Uthpala Ferdinando is a migrant mother of two. After a traumatic first birth and culturally unsafe postnatal care, she chose differently the second time. She shares her experience so services better understand South Asian and migrant families.
WORK WITH US
Colleges, services, researchers and community organisations can join as organisational members. Parents can join as lived-experience members or supporters. There is no membership fee in this founding phase.
Contact: info@mcrmc.org.au