Maternal and Child Health

Once your hospital or midwife has advised Council's maternal and child health service of your baby's birth, a member of the maternal and child health service will phone you to arrange the date and time of your first appointment. This is usually attended in your own home.

Follow up appointments will be in one of our six local centres closest to you, across the City of Ballarat.

There are 10 key stages of your child's development that you will attend a maternal and child health. These visits focus on optimising child and family health, safety and wellbeing, learning and development and include:

• Home visit
• 2 weeks
• 4 weeks
• 8 weeks
• 4 months
• 8 months
• 12 months
• 18 months
• 2 years  
• 3.5 to 4 years.

At these appointments the nurse will check your child's health, growth and development, including hearing, vision, speech, and fine and gross motor skills. At each nurse appointment you can talk about your concerns or ask questions about your child and your parenting experience.

We can give you information about parenting and children, including:

• Infant feeding and nutrition advice
• Sleep and settling strategies
• Child behaviour and development
• Family health and wellbeing
• Support for the emotional wellbeing of parents 

City of Ballarat provides maternal and child health services from a number of centre locations across the municipality.

Appointments are available at our six centres on weekdays. Appointments can also be made for Saturday morning clinics that are run monthly. 

• Ballarat: Girrabanya, 11B Steinfeld Street, Ballarat Central
• Wendouree: Corner Gillies and Hastings Streets, Wendouree
• Buninyong: 208 Learmonth St, Buninyong
• Sebastopol: 183 Albert St, Sebastopol
• Bonshaw: 284 Morgan St, Sebastopol
• Lucas: 17 Coltman Plaza, Lucas

To book an appointment please call 5320 5720

No appointment is needed to use the MCH nurse drop in services at:

Mondays 1pm – 4pm
Wendouree Children’s Centre
Corner Gillies and Hastings Streets, Wendouree

Fridays 9.30am - 2.30pm
Parent Place
39 Sturt St, Ballarat 

The Victorian MCH Sleep and Settling Program provides families with the information and support they need to confidently respond to early childhood Sleep and Settling concerns using safe and effective strategies.  

City of Ballarat offer a range of sleep supports for families, including free Sleep and Settling Information sessions, Sleep clinic, Sleep drop-in clinic and Home Visits.

For more information please visit the Sleep and Settling Program page

Our First Time Parents Group is a group program offered to all new parents. MCH Nurses facilitate the discussion with time afterwards to connect with other parents, these groups are offered to all first-time parents/carers to network, make friends and learn together.

This program offers home visiting to families that have more complex needs.

You can call the MCH Line on 13 22 29 at any time. The line is open 24 hours and is staffed by MCH nurses.

The Maternal and Child Health phone app has lots of information for families and is available in 10 languages.