Midwives mark special day with walk around lake

Friday, 6 May 2011, 7:42 pm
Press Release: Waikato District Health Board

A group of Waikato midwives put on their walking shoes yesterday (Thursday) and began walking towards South Africa.

Clutching purple balloons and wearing T-shirts printed with the word for “midwife” in Maori (tapuhi) and other languages, the cheerful bunch were on a mission.

Their walk around Hamilton’s Lake Rotoroa in Hamilton was to celebrate International Midwives’ Day on May 5.

The first International Midwives’ Day was in 1991 but this year, to mark the day, the International Confederation of Midwives asked midwives around the world to organise five kilometre walks in their communities.

The walks aimed to raise awareness of midwifery issues, including maternal and newborn mortality worldwide, and were part of the build up to the organisation’s 29th Triennial Congress in Durban, South Africa next month. The international gathering of midwives, which runs from June 19 to 23, will begin with a 5km walk into the city on June 18.

Organiser of the Hamilton walk, midwife Sallie Turner, said she wanted to highlight the good work New Zealand midwives do, and global health issues impacting mothers and newborns.

Turner and three other Waikato midwives, including New Zealand College of Midwives regional chairperson for Waikato/Taranaki Debbie Fawcett, will travel to Durban to attend the conference.

Waikato District Health Board acting clinical midwife director Celeste Pon said the relationship midwives have with their clients is an important one, and involves trust, shared understanding and empowerment.

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“It is an enormous privilege to walk the journey with women and their families in pregnancy and birth, improving the outcomes for mother and baby and in preparation for parenthood,” said Pon. “Midwives walk with women, believing in their power and courage to birth.”

The relationship between a midwife and a woman can span 10 months, from early pregnancy, through labour and until six weeks’ post-birth.

Midwives attend to the woman and baby’s health and wellness; provide important education, support and advice; and prepare a woman and her family for pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, parenthood and care of the newborn.
Pon said International Midwives’ Day is a time for midwives to take stock. “It is about midwives around the world making that commitment to improve the care that we provide to mothers and babies.

“In New Zealand we are very fortunate to have the midwifery model of women-centred partnership and informed consent.”

The day is also a time to reflect on less positive outcomes, particularly in developing countries where 90 per cent of maternal deaths occur. “Let us remember the mothers who die in pregnancy and childbirth,” said Pon. “Every day more than 1000 women (worldwide) die in pregnancy or childbirth of severe bleeding, infections, eclampsia, obstructed labour and other complications.”

Women in New Zealand are lucky; they have access to a world-class maternity system, and, for the most part, there are excellent outcomes for mother and child. Women in New Zealand have choices when it comes to their maternity care, she said.

In New Zealand a healthy pregnant woman has her choice of Lead Maternity Carer, which may be an independent midwife, one affiliated with a birth centre, a hospital midwife team, a general practitioner or a private obstetrician. If there are complications with her pregnancy, a hospital-employed midwife or obstetrics team may become involved in the woman’s care, although her midwife may still be her advocate and support person at the birth.

A healthy mum-to-be also has the choice about where she will birth: at a hospital, birthing centre or at home. There are 11 primary birthing units across the Waikato region with a new one set to open in Thames later next month.

In 2010, there were about 3600 births at Waikato Hospital, and almost 64,000 babies born around the country.

Maternity care offered by midwives is free for New Zealand citizens and residents, and staying in a public hospital or birth centre is fully funded.

The industry is strictly regulated by the Midwifery Council of New Zealand, which requires annual recertification Registered midwives get regular feedback from clients and are required to do ongoing education.

There are approximately 2800 practising midwives in New Zealand, according to the latest 2011/12 practising certificate numbers from the Midwifery Council of New Zealand.

In the Waikato area there are more than 200 practising midwives, including about 100 midwives working at Waikato District Health Board sites throughout the region. A further 122 Lead Maternity Carers have access to various Waikato District Health Board facilities to birth their clients.

Midwifery is a busy profession, and midwives are often on call day and night to answer questions from worried pregnant women or new mums, or to attend a birth.
However, all of the midwives walking around Lake Rotoroa spoke of their love of the job.

“(Being a midwife) is the best job in the world,” said Debbie Fawcett, who has been a midwife for almost 20 years and attended at least 1000 births. She said she still “tears up” at the birth of a baby.

“It’s such a huge privilege to walk along with someone on their journey from being a young woman to becoming a mother,” she said.

Fawcett moved from the UK in 1998 because she wanted to work in the New Zealand maternity care system. “It’s the envy of the world,” said Fawcett, who believes the public should support the New Zealand midwifery system. “Once it’s gone, it’s gone and very few places in the world have that choice.”

She said the majority of women are satisfied with the care they receive from midwives.

Maternity services nationwide received another boost on International Midwives’ Day, with the Government announcing an extra $33.2 million for maternity services and $21.3 million towards helping new mothers and babies, part of Budget 2011.

Some of the funding will increase the number of midwives in hospitals, and help to improve the safety and quality of services for mothers and babies by bringing local maternity professionals together for regular clinical reviews of all births.

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