MEDIA RELEASE Thursday, May 03, 2007

Midwives Reach Out To Women – Wherever They Live
International Midwives Day May 5 2007

May 5, is the day to celebrate midwifery - No matter where women have their babies, they will be cared for by a midwife. Midwives work in the community, in birth centres and in public and private hospitals. Midwives are the guardians of ‘normal birth’.

In recognition of the important role midwives play in the care of women and their families before, during and after the birth of their babies; Johnson’s ® baby launched the ‘Midwife of the Year Award’ in 2000. This year, a total of 1,225 nominations were received from families who wanted to see ‘their’ midwives recognised as the midwife of the year.

Nominations received were inspiring and heartfelt; it took a team of many to compile final state and territory winners:

In addition to these awards hospitals, midwives, mothers and community groups across Australia are organising morning and afternoon teas, market and shopping centre stalls, picnics and other festivities to mark the occasion.

Midwives have a unique relationship with all women they care for. Midwifery care is ‘woman centred’ care and aims to bring healthy outcomes for mothers and babies. This means positive action from midwives to ensure that what they offer is what women want.

The Australian College of Midwives calls on all levels of government to support midwifery as a public health strategy. May 5 is International Midwives Day and the international theme of ‘reaching out to women’ is striking a chord. 

‘Reaching out’ is an important part of a midwife’s job, not just to provide care for women who live a long way from a health facility, but to overcome other barriers to access. These may be rooted in cultural or linguistic differences, or may be related to the timing, style or affordability of services.

Midwives are educated to provide maternity care for women in their own right.  “We have a ridiculous situation currently in Australia where, in a time of workforce shortages, midwives are leaving the profession because they cannot provide the care that they are educated to” President of the Australia College of Midwives, Professor Pat Brodie said. “Governments at all levels need to look at funding models that ensure direct access to midwives, who are keen to fulfill the roles that they were educated for. Midwives work effectively as part of a larger team using appropriate guidelines to consult and transfer women as needed, to ensure safe care for women in their local communities”. 

CONTACTS:  Dr Barbara Vernon, Executive Officer, Australian College of Midwives
T: 02 6230 7333 F: 02 6230 6033 E: executiveofficer@midwives.org.au W: www.midwives.org.au

Branch Presidents
ACT: Gill Hall 0421 624 568 NSW: Caroline Homer 0418 466 974 SA: Julie Pratt 0400 044 559
NT: Jenny Cameron 0419 528 717 QLD: Jenny Gamble 0404 080 518 TAS: 03 6352 5520
VIC: Meredith McIntyre 0414688354 WA: Dale Reynolds 0428 712 613

Not enough midwives to go around on Midwives Day

In the lead up to International Day of the Midwife on 5 May, the Australian College of Midwives today called on the federal government to work collaboratively with the state and territories to address the deepening crisis of a shortage of midwives.   

In 2002 the Australian Health Workforce Advisory Committee estimated a shortfall of 1,800 midwives across Australia.

“The shortages have only worsened since then” says President of the Australian College of Midwives, Professor Pat Brodie.  “More and more maternity hospitals are being forced to call upon nurses without midwifery qualifications to staff maternity wards.  This is not safe or appropriate”.

“At the same time we have queues of people wanting to join the midwifery profession who can’t get a place in a program for want of funding for clinical placements” Professor Brodie said.  “For example in NSW this year there were 250 first preference applications for 50 places in the 3 year Bachelor of Midwifery program.  In Victoria there were 1,500 applications for only 120 places”. 

All midwifery students need clinical placements as part of their education.  “The problem is that funding for people to supervise and educate students on clinical placements is just not available to the levels needed” Professor Brodie said. 

“It’s a familiar tale of the federally funded universities saying it’s the job of state funded hospitals to pay for clinical supervision, and vice versa.  When are we going to put the interests of women and babies ahead of federal state squabbling over which bucket of taxpayer funding the money comes from?”

“Meanwhile more and more women miss out on primary care from midwives and the proven benefits for the health of both mother and baby from having professional care by a midwife.  We need the federal government to work collaboratively with the state governments to ensure there is adequate funding for clinical placements to allow universities to educate more midwives and fix the shortage over the next 3-5 years”. 

Midwives are recognised by the World Health Organization as “the most appropriate and cost effective type of health care provider to be assigned to the care of normal pregnancy and normal birth, including risk assessment and the recognition of complications.”

Midwives are fully educated and regulated to provide care for women during pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period.  They use national evidence based guidelines to refer and transfer women to medical care when needed.  Midwives work in collaboration with other professions to ensure safe and effective care. 

CONTACT:  Dr Barbara Vernon, Executive Officer, Australian College of Midwives
T: 02 6230 7333 F: 02 6230 6033 E: executiveofficer@midwives.org.au W: www.midwives.org.au