Bobbi was denied access to an Aboriginal midwifery program in her last pregnancy – and nearly lost her life

Bobbi Lockyer, a Ngarluma, Kariyarra, Nyulnyul and Yawuru woman, says she received no psychological support after she experienced a traumatic childbirth in a Perth hospital eight years ago. Photograph: Michael Torres/The Guardian

After a life-threatening three-day labour, Bobbi Lockyer woke up alone in a single room in the intensive care unit of a Perth hospital with an IV drip in her arm. She had lost five litres of blood and had been rushed to intensive care for an emergency hysterectomy. Her new baby had been discharged while she was unconscious into the care of her now ex-partner.

“I woke up alone and thought something had happened to my baby,” she says. “I was distraught.”