The SISTABIRTH protocol: a co-developed multiple-methods study to design a Birthing on Country model and adapt the SISTAQUIT smoking cessation resources in three regional and remote Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services

Anchored in Indigenous Australian research sovereignty, the study privileges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices through the application of yarning methodology, fostering culturally safe and community-led inquiry.

The integration of the Supporting Indigenous Smokers To Assist Quitting Ngurrajili programme within recommendations of Birthing on Country models represents a novel, multilevel intervention addressing behavioural, structural and systemic determinants of smoking in pregnancy.

Implementation science frameworks, including RISE (Redesigning health services, Investing in the workforce, Strengthening families and Embedding Indigenous governance and control), Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation and Maintenance (RE-AIM), and Acceptability, Practicability, Effectiveness, Affordability, Spill-over effects and Equity (APEASE), are strategically embedded to optimise translational impact across clinical, cultural and policy domains.

The co-development of site-specific, 5-year Birthing on Country strategic plans is designed to catalyse sustainable transformation aligned with national health equity agendas.

As this study…