Good News for New Zealand Women and their Babies

Media Release                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

More Midwives - Good News for New Zealand Women and their Babies

As midwives around New Zealand prepare to celebrate International Midwives Day, there’s positive news for New Zealand women and their babies.

The number of midwives registered in New Zealand has increased, with the workforce register for this group of health professionals showing 2700 midwives currently practicing in New Zealand, up from 2500 in 2009.

NZ College of Midwives (NZCOM) CEO, Karen Guilliland, says there are several reasons for the increase including changes to funding and support for midwives in their first year of practice, together with a specific focus and action on the issue of the recruitment and retention of midwives.

“We have worked closely with a number of groups including the Government, particularly over the last three years, to address the shortage of midwives in New Zealand. A focus on recruitment and retention in rural areas is showing positive results and this means an even better maternity service for  women and their babies throughout the country,” she says.

Karen Guilliland identifies increased funding by the MoH for under graduate education and training, which has highlighted midwifery as an attractive career choice and resulted in more midwives staying in the job.

NZCOM Midwifery Advisor, Norma Campbell says, “There are many important elements related to being a health professional. The professional support and the hugely successful mentoring programme provided for midwifery students and graduates in their first year of practice, has undoubtedly contributed to the increase in numbers.”

She also credits the work of the previous and current Governments and their Health Workforce focus for the recognition of the needs of the midwifery profession and changes made in some areas which has resulted in positive outcomes.  

“The Midwifery undergraduate degree intakes in the past had been capped and after working closely with the MoH and Government, that cap was removed. This year there are 120 spaces for undergraduates, that increases to 170 next year and will be more than 200 spaces the following year, which will mean we can look forward to a stable supply of midwives in the future,” she says.

With more new graduates coming through, Norma Campbell says the average age of midwives (was 46-47 yrs) will also drop, enabling some midwives to retire if they wish or step out of practice and enter the area of research, something they have not easily been able to do until now.          

ENDS

© Scoop Media