We have had more success with engaging those that can influence or make the changes we need to achieve safe staffing levels in Australian maternity units. The national union has responded to my requests for support and next week will take the issue to a meeting of stakeholders who are developing a strategic direction for maternity services in Australia. A colleague and I also met with a federal labour MP, who listened to our concerns and our proposed solution, and is going to further investigate the complexities of the funding model and develop a plan to take our issue to the parliament . The NSW union continues to show its support for making babies count, this week releasing a comprehensive plan for making workloads safer, which includes acknowledging newborn babies as patients. I have posted the summary of key points on the BabiesCount Facebook page. Returning now to the heading of this weeks update, I have looked at each States staffing calculation tools, all of which are based on bed occupancy/patient numbers, and therefore none of them (Nursing hours per patient day, ExcelCare, mandated ratios or BirthRate) will give us the safe staffing we need until newborns are counted as patients. You cannot achieve safe staffing levels or provide the best care when up to 50% of the workload is unrecognised by the system used to determine staff numbers.