This presentation is a welcome to new midwifery students and highlights the midwifery profession, discusses issues and national reform and midwifery into the future

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MMaaiieerr..BBeelliinnddaa@@yyaahhoooo..ccoomm..aauu

3. • Why midwifery?
• Cute babies?
• Cushy job?
• Career options?
• Climbing mountains?
• Feminism?
• Being political?

5. AGEING, C. D. O. H. A. 2008. National Consensus Framework for Rural Maternity Services. In:
AGEING, C. D. O. H. A. (ed.).
COALITION, M., (AUSTRALIA), A. & INC, A. S. O. I. M. C. M. W. 2002. National Maternity Action Plan:
For the introduction of community midwifery services in urban and rural Australia.
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professional and community awareness. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 1, 43-9.
EVANS, R., VEITCH, C., HAYS, R., CLARK, M. & LARKINS, S. 2011. Rural maternity care and health
policy: Parents' experiences. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 19, 306-311.
FAHEY CM & JS, M. 2005. Australian rural midwives: perspectives on continuing professional
development. . Rural and Remote Health 5, 468.
GRZYBOWSKI, S., KORNELSEN, J. & SCHUURMAN, N. 2009. Planning the optimal level of local
maternity service for small rural communities: A systems study in British Columbia. Health
policy (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 92, 149-157.
HOANG H, L. Q., KILPATRICK S. 2012. Small rural maternity units without caesarean delivery
capabilities: is it safe and sustainable in the eyes of health professionals in Tasmania? . Rural
and Remote Health, 12, 1941.
IRELAND, J., BRYERS, H., VAN TEIJLINGEN, E., HUNDLEY, V., FARMER, J., HARRIS, F., TUCKER, J.,
KIGER, A. & CALDOW, J. 2007. Competencies and skills for remote and rural maternity care:
a review of the literature. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 58, 105-115.
KILDEA, S. Year. Risk and childbirth in rural and remote Australia. In: Presented at the 7th National
Rural Health Conference: The Art and Science of Healthy Community - Sharing country
know-how 2003 Hobart, 1-4th March 2003.
KILDEA, S. 2006. Risky business: contested knowledge over safe birthing services for Aboriginal
women. Health Sociology Review, 15, 387-396.
KILDEA S, K. S., BARCLAY L, TRACY S. 2010. ‘Closing the Gap’: How maternity services can contribute
to reducing poor maternal infant health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
women. Rural and Remote Health, 10, (Online) 2010. Available: http://www.rrh.org.au
KORNELSEN, J. & GRZYBOWSKI, S. 2006. The Reality of Resistance: The Experiences of Rural
Parturient Women. The Journal of Midwifery & Women’s Health, 51, 260-265.
KORNELSEN, J. G., STEFAN ; IGLESIAS, STUART. 2006. Is rural maternity care sustainable without
general practitioner surgeons? Canadian Journal of Rural Medicine, 11, 218-20.
KRUSKE, S. & JONES, R. 2010. Summary Report on Consumer, Carer, and Stakeholder Perspectives on
Maternity Care in Regional, Rural and Remote Queensland: .
LUO, Z.-C. & WILKINS, R. 2008. Degree of rural isolation and birth outcomes. Paediatric and Perinatal
Epidemiology, 22, 341-349.
ROBERTS, C. L. & ALGERT, C. S. 2000. The urban and rural divide for women giving birth in NSW,
1990–1997. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 24, 291-297.
ROSENBLATT, R., REINKEN, J. & SHOEMACK, P. 1985. IS OBSTETRICS SAFE IN SMALL HOSPITALS? The
Lancet, 326, 429-432.
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first report of the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare on rural health Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare, Canberra
TUCKER, J., HUNDLEY, V., KIGER, A., BRYERS, H., CALDOW, J., FARMER, J., HARRIS, F., IRELAND, J. &
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6. Midwife
• A midwife is a person who, having been regularly admitted to a midwifery
educational programme, duly recognised in the country in which it is located,
has successfully completed the prescribed course of studies in midwifery
and has acquired the requisite qualifications to be registered and/or legally
licensed to practise midwifery.
• The midwife is recognised as a responsible and accountable professional
who works in partnership with women to give the necessary support, care
and advice during pregnancy, labour and the postpartum period, to conduct
births on the midwife’s own responsibility and to provide care for the
newborn and the infant. This care includes preventative measures, the
promotion of normal birth, the detection of complications in mother and
child, the accessing of medical care or other appropriate assistance and the
carrying out of emergency measures.
• The midwife has an important task in health counselling and education, not
only for the woman, but also within the family and the community. This work
should involve antenatal education and preparation for parenthood and may
extend to women’s health, sexual or reproductive health and child care.
• A midwife may practise in any setting including the home, community,
hospitals, clinics or health units.
• Adopted by the International Confederation of Midwives Council meeting,
19th July, 2005, Brisbane, Australia Supersedes the ICM “Definition of the
Midwife” 1972 and its amendments of 1990

7. EElliiggiibbllee MMiiddwwiiffee
• What is an ‘eligible’ midwife?
• An eligible midwife is a midwife who meets further professional criteria that enables them to work
in private practice and may obtain a provider number. By having a provider number their private
clients may access Medical Benefits Scheme and Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
• This is legislated under section 38 (2) of the National Law.
• How do I gain registration as an ‘eligible’ midwife?
• The standards are documented on the Nursing & Midwifery Board of Australia website, available
at:
• www.nursingmidiwferyboard.gov.au.
• Summary of Requirements for Eligibility:
• A current general registration as a midwife in Australia with no restrictions on practice
• Midwifery experience that constitutes the equivalent of 3 years full time post initial registration as
a midwife
• Current competencies to provide pregnancy,labour, birth and post natal care to women and their
infants
• Successful completion of an approved professional practice review program for midwives working
across the continuum of midwifery care
• 20 additional hours per year of continuing professional development relating to the continuum of
midwifery care
• Formal undertaking to complete, within 18 months of recognition as an eligible midwife, or the
successful completion of recognised prescribing course.

8. • So is a midwife a midwife or is there better
midwives than others?

9. EEmmppllooyymmeenntt aass aa mmiiddwwiiffee
• Public
• Private
• Self employed
• Hybrids of all of the above

10. National MMaatteerrnniittyy SSeerrvviicceess PPllaann
•Five year vision
• Maternity care will be woman-centred, reflecting the needs of
each woman within a safe and sustainable quality system. All
Australian women will have access to high-quality, evidence-based,
culturally competent maternity care in a range of settings
close to where they live. Provision of such maternity care will
contribute to closing the gap between the health outcomes of
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-
Indigenous Australians. Appropriately trained and qualified
maternity health professionals will be available to provide
continuous maternity care to all women.

11. NNaattiioonnaall RReeffoorrmm
• Scope of practice
• Professional identify
• Private practice
• Access for your clients to have MBS/PBS
rebates
• Models of care – High risk, low risk, all risk
• Woman centered

13. ffuuttuurree
• Greater access to visiting rights, indemnity
insurance, credentialing…
• Negotiated contracts….
• More public models…
• More rural and remote models that utilise
midwives to full scope of practice….
• Rural/remote midwives with maternal child
health, sexual health and immunisation
qualifications….

14. ""TThhee ppeerrssoonnaall iiss ppoolliittiiccaall""
• Are we living in an enlightened and equal
society?
• Risk has become the norm even normal is
only normal because there is as yet an
absence of risk!!!!!

15. • Women are both personally responsible and separated
from the personal in the immediate space of being at
risk. This exposes a discourse of medicine based on the
separation of mind and body, the mechanistic framing of
the maternal body. It is also the fragmenting and
isolation of women’s bodies into functional and
dysfunctional parts, cervix, placenta and uterus for
example. This pathologic body is identified in specific
ways, (always at risk), therefore screened, managed and
treated. This is a powerful way to maintain the discourse
of medicine and excluding other discursive
constructions.

16. • Why is it ok to assume medicine or
midwifery can determine what is good or
bad for women?
• When did it become ok to take women out
of their personal context and frame
everything for them in a medical context

17. Fundamentally wwhhyy iiss iitt eevveenn ookk ffoorr
aannyyoonnee ttoo ddeecciiddee aannyytthhiinngg ffoorr
wwoommeenn??
• Water birth
• Pain relief
• Homebirth
• Cesarean section
• Sex???????

18. • My reasons for being a midwife are all of
the above including my girls and
everyone's girls!!!!

19. •• TThhee cchhaalllleennggee nnooww iiss ttoo pprraaccttiiccee
ppoolliittiiccss aass tthhee aarrtt ooff mmaakkiinngg wwhhaatt
aappppeeaarrss ttoo bbee iimmppoossssiibbllee,, ppoossssiibbllee..
HHiillaarryy RRooddhhaamm