This webinar facilitated by ACM President Joanne Gray will be a conversation with Michelle Underwood about setting up the Breech Service at Westmead.

Michelle Underwood



I was born at home in the city of Leeds, UK. That was the norm in those days! One of my earliest memories is the birth of my youngest brother and greeting him, in the front room of our home, an hour after he was born. This life experience has shaped my philosophy as a midwife.

I came into midwifery later in life as a Pre-registration Midwife eventually becoming an Advanced Midwife Practitioner. I’d wanted to move to Australia for many years so when the opportunity came to work in Sydney, I grabbed it. Firstly working as a Midwife in the RPAH Birth Centre, then as a Clinical Midwife Consultant at Westmead.

I set up the Breech Service with Dr Andrew Pesce, at Westmead Hospital to facilitate the changing needs of our community and assist women to achieve their birth aspirations whilst aiming towards normal birth. Birth is not just about physical health, but about psychological health as well. Stigma around vaginal breech birth remains; the aim of developing the service was to provide an environment that enabled women to make an informed choice and to feel safe with the decision they made. We provide women with access to external cephalic version and vaginal breech birth and by doing so increase vaginal birth rate and reduce the number of caesarean sections being performed.

Our service is now well established and sustainable, succession planning is in place - our midwives and medical staff gain valuable knowledge and experience not available in the vast majority of the state, or Australia. I’m involved in ‘preaching the breech’ as a faculty member for the BABE course, encouraging others to give women the birth experience they want and need.

Qualifications:

Diploma in Professional Skills in Midwifery, Manchester University, UK

Master of Science in Advanced Practice, Health and Social Care, Salford University, UK