Four new midwives have boosted the region’s midwife numbers after they graduated from Hunter New England Health’s innovative Rural Midwifery Education Program.
The four new midwives recently completed a one year distance education Postgraduate Diploma of Midwifery while working and learning on-the-job from experienced midwives at Tamworth, Armidale, Inverell and Moree.
Graduating midwife, Melanie Williams from Armidale, plans to continue working with rural maternity units in the region.
Co-ordinator of the Rural Midwifery Education Program, Robin Skewes, said more than 80 midwives have now completed their midwifery training through the program since 1993. The course is offered by Hunter New England Health through the Rural Midwifery Education Program, in conjunction with Charles Sturt University.
“This is a great program that’s helped this region to “grow our own’ midwives since the early 90s, in the hope they will stay on to work in our health services,” Ms Skewes said.
The program allows the midwives-in-training to study in their home towns and other centres within the immediate region, while getting exposure to a wide variety of clinical experiences.
“The students are employed by one of the four participating hospitals (Armidale, Inverell, Moree and Tamworth) and rotate between at least three of these hospitals throughout the course,” Ms Skewes said.
“It’s a very intensive year and the students benefit from being able to complete 12 months of clinical learning concurrently with the theoretical component of the Diploma,” Ms Skewes said.
“This gives them a distinct advantage when they begin work as fully-fledged midwives, because they already have 12 months experience building relationships with mums and tracking their progress through pregnancy, birth and postnatal care.”
