Thank you, country midwives
Each year on 5 May, we have an opportunity to show our appreciation for the incredible midwives who go above and beyond to support women, families and country communities each and every day.
Last year alone, more than 350 dedicated midwives supported the births of more than 4000 country babies.
Not only do they provide the very best in woman and family-centred care for birthing mothers right across rural and remote WA, they also provide essential sexual, reproductive, maternal and newborn care, education and support services.
Time and time again they show that the spirit of ingenuity, innovation, collaboration and compassion is alive and well in country hospitals and health services.
There’s no greater evidence of this spirit than Wheatbelt Clinical Midwife Consultant Melanie Woodhams and Pilbara Endorsed Midwife and Clinical Midwife Specialist Wendy Hoey, two incredibly dedicated professionals who will be representing our health service this weekend at the WA Nursing and Midwifery Excellence Awards.
This year’s International Day of the Midwife theme – One Million More Midwives– echoes efforts underway from across our organisation to recruit, retain, upskill and develop this specialised and much-needed cohort of country clinicians.
Our work in this space has been greatly assisted by the graduation of 65 midwives from the Paid Student Midwifery Model since it recommenced in 2023, with 36 paid students currently employed across WACHS sites.
Importantly, we’ve seen an 80 per cent retention rate of these students as midwives and over 90 per cent have moved beyond their graduate year to become permanent midwives.
We are also working to strengthen pathways for midwives into advanced scope of practice roles with five scholarships provided to midwives to obtain a university qualification required to apply for endorsement to prescribe medications and order diagnostic tests. We now have almost 17 FTE of Endorsed Midwives working across rural and remote WA, providing expert specialist care, service oversight and support to junior staff.
By focussing on education and development, we’re ensuring the next generation of country midwives maintains our reputation as an employer of choice for a highly-skilled, agile and responsive workforce, one that was recently bolstered by another record intake of newly-qualified midwives heading to the bush.
In the education space, we’ve established a Maternity Connect Program for current midwives to gain a valuable, paid skill refresher placement in a regional or metropolitan hospital, while more than 50 midwives and nurses graduated from the Child and Adolescent Health Service neonatal nursery course since 2023.
We’ve also worked to strengthen partnerships through our graduate midwife partner program with King Edward Memorial Hospital as well as our collaboration with the university sector, to obtain a post-graduate qualification in neonatal care with our first graduates in 2025 and another 20 scholarships granted for 2026.
Elsewhere, our award-winning Midwifery Group Practices continue to shine bright, while the success of the Fly-in-Fly-out (FIFO) midwifery staffing model in Derby has seen the program expanded to Hedland, Kununurra and Kalgoorlie.
Our innovative approach to support our local maternity workforce has also contributed to the success of the Midwifery Obstetric Emergency Telehealth Service (MOETS) which, since inception, has had over 8500 referrals and provided support to maternity sites and non-maternity hospitals via telehealth access to expert advice.
As we look to the year ahead, our priority areas include theMaternal and Newborn Service Planning FrameworkandMultidisciplinary Maternal and Newborn Workforce Plan, as well as a refresh of the Maternal and Newborn Care Strategy 2019-25.
This is just a fraction of the broad range of programs and initiatives underway in the midwifery space across our health service.
We encourage you to take some time today to acknowledge and celebrate the achievements of our midwifery teams who show up time and time again for expectant mothers and their families, helping us all to safely welcome the next generation of country kids.