Since Cairns Private Hospital shut down its maternity services last October, Dr Elizabeth Jackson has not been able to deliver babies.
Instead, her patients have had to travel thousands of kilometres just to give birth.
"I'm a private obstetrician that can't deliver babies," Dr Jackson said.
"It's stressful for the mother, it's frustrating for me and not something any woman should be forced to do."
Obstetricians say if IVF data can be made public, so should births. (ABC North Queensland: Nathalie Fernbach)
Hundreds of obstetricians, representative bodies and health economists gathered in Brisbane this weekend for the first national forum into private obstetrics.
In recent years, at least nine private hospitals across Queensland, Victoria, Tasmania, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia have closed their maternity departments.
The forum discussed recent closures across the country as well as the need for birth data to be made public.
"The Australian medical system was not designed to have everybody in the public sector. There was supposed to be a symbiotic relationship between the public and private," said Dr Jackson.
She said a healthy obstetrics sector was "the barometer of private health care in Australia".
Dr Elizabeth Jackson says the closure of maternity services is forcing some women to travel to give birth. (ABC News: Arianna Levy)
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, around 300,000 babies are born in the country every year.
Professor Stephen Robson, federal president of the Australian Medical Association, said the closure of maternity services across the country had added strain to the public sector.
"The public system is not coping — it's overwhelmed," said Professor Robson, who also attended the forum.
"It's simply too big to fail, so we need to find solutions."
Professor Stephen Robson says the public hospital system is under pressure.
Obstetricians attending the forum also called on the federal government to make Australian birthing data public.
They say having access to information on birth complications — including rates of emergency caesareans, haemorrhaging, and forceps deliveries — would help women make an informed choice about their own care.
"Whilst this data exists, it's owned by the state governments, and that data is simply not made public, and often states and territories can delay data access," Dr Jackson said.
In Australia, data for other areas of women's health like IVF treatment is made public.
"This information helps women and families to make fully informed birth choices, and it's information that belongs to the Australian public," Dr Jackson said.
"This data is already available at conception, so why not at birth?"