When Sarah Bombell was four years old, her grandparents took her for a drive through Sydney.

As they passed Sydney University, Sarah apparently pointed to it and proclaimed, “I’m going to go there one day and be a doctor!”

Neither she nor her family have ever been able to explain this.

“No one in my family was a doctor, and we don’t know how I even knew that it was a university and that doctors came from there,” Sarah says.

Little Sarah, however, had a plan, and after completing two other degrees, she ultimately graduated medicine from the Australian National University in 2008.

The now GP obstetrician, lactation consultant and mum of three, Dr Sarah Bombell, is the owner and medical director of Canberra’s first and only multidisciplinary GP clinic for mothers and babies, The Mother Hub.

Originally the brainchild of Dr Sarah and two midwife colleagues, Ali and Mel, The Mother Hub opened its doors in Queanbeyan in 2021 and recently relocated to Deakin to meet the growing need for its services.

The clinic provides GP support, pregnancy care, breastfeeding support, clinical psychology, counselling, midwifery and lactation services, osteopathy, acupuncture and acupressure, tongue‑tie assessment and treatment, vaccinations and more.

Dr Sarah says the clinic is a response to a significant gap in the healthcare system and was fuelled by a desire to create a ‘one-stop shop’ where care for mothers and babies is integrated rather than fragmented.

“It’s about preventing people from slipping through the cracks,” says Dr Sarah.

New services and programs in development include a day-stay facility, antenatal education, group counselling and mothers’ groups.

Naomi Edison, a registered nurse, practising midwife, perinatal counsellor and one of the many colleagues for whom Dr Sarah says she is grateful, says, “The Mother Hub offers care to antenatal, postnatal and lactating women and their babies.”

“This practice is the only service of its kind in the ACT and fills a critical gap in this region by offering consistent and compassionate follow up for women who are too often left without the ongoing care they deserve.”

It’s not only The Mother Hub’s team members and patients who are singing its praises.

This month, The Mother Hub became one of only three Australian recipients of the International Board-Certified Lactation Consultants (IBCLCs) annual award and the first and only Canberra organisation to win it.

The IBCLC Care Award recognises hospitals and community-based facilities that demonstrate their commitment to promoting, protecting, and supporting breastfeeding and the lactation consultant profession.

It recognises excellent care and breastfeeding education.

Dr Sarah is no stranger to seeing a vision through or being the ‘first’ to break new ground in the pursuit of what is important to her.

She was the only one in her family to graduate university (initially as a registered nurse); the first neonatal new graduate nurse to rotate through the neonatal unit in Canberra; had her first baby the day after she graduated from medical school; and was the first to pioneer part-time medical training with a colleague.

“We were the first interns ever to job share an intern position at the Canberra Hospital,” Dr Sarah says.

 Sarah’s commitment to caring for mothers and babies is personal, not only because she is a mother herself.

“I had an acute awareness of prematurity growing up,” she says.

“I’m the eldest of five living children and my mum had a baby before me at 28 weeks who died.

“I was also born at 28 weeks, and all of my siblings were born early … the younger two when I was a teenager… so I spent many months in the neonatal unit watching what the nurses did.

“I knew that was what I wanted to do,” she says.

Walking through The Mother Hub with Dr Sarah, it is evident the care that has been taken to create a safe place for mothers by Dr Sarah and her colleagues, who are acutely aware of what mothers and babies need and who strive daily, in collaboration with each other, to provide it.

From the furnishings, clinic layout, reading material, amenities, warm reception and more.

This is not ‘a job’, or a profit-making enterprise.

It is a calling.

Ms Edison says, “I see a lot of women who are coming to me saying, ‘I thought there’d be more support. I thought people would be rallying around me. I thought that I would have more information.’”

Ms Edison feels they are getting less because of increasingly stretched health services and the ways in which our society has moved away from intergenerational and informal peer support.

“I recently saw someone wearing a t-shirt which said, ‘So, they say it takes a village to raise a child’ and on the back: ‘Do I just wait for them to show up or is there a number I can call?”

Dr Sarah has committed years of study, too many qualifications to list (she is still studying), and rigorous but rewarding clinical practice (she once broke her hand assisting a patient through a difficult birth), to see her vision for mothers and families through.

Dr Sarah has taken a huge risk in deciding to fund the clinic, with her husband and children spending many weekends helping her set up this ‘safe place’ for mothers.

Dr Sarah says she also owes a lot to her grandparents, Sheila and Brian Bombell, who instilled a strong work ethic in her.

“They told me I could do or be anything I wanted,” she says.

It seems they were correct.

What keeps Dr Sarah going?

“I’d like to think that this clinic might serve as an example for other places around Australia and the world,” she says.

“There are very few dedicated women’s health, let alone breastfeeding-specific clinics.”

But when you dig deeper, Dr Sarah’s daily motivation is palpable.

“I drove into work today thinking about why I do it, while feeling stressed about staff being off sick and freaking out about various things,” she says.

“Then I walked into the clinic and there were three little girls playing with balloons and having the best time, a couple of mums talking and laughing, and a teary mum being comforted by another as reception brought them both a cuppa.

“Suddenly, my heart was full and I thought…

This. This is why I do it.’”

Click here for more information about The Mother Hub, including fees and how to make an appointment.

Or you can call 6196 6722.