MIDWIVES came together to join an international celebration of their profession last week while calling for more students to consider taking up work in the regions.<\/p>\n
International Day of the Midwife was recognised last Thursday with an awareness walk in town, and Christine Trevena said it was a boost for her and her colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no more special time than when someone has a baby. Those eight hours that you might spend in a birth suite with someone, there\u2019s no other relationship like it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI can\u2019t stress how much we really develop a relationship with those families that we\u2019re looking after, and then that first precious moment is the best thing you\u2019ll ever see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Trevena only considered the career about six years ago after the birth of her first child and has since lost count of all the newborns she\u2019s helped deliver.<\/p>\n
As a lecturer in midwifery at La Trobe University, she said there were projects currently underway around central and northern Victoria aimed at drawing more midwives out to the regions and ensuring expectant mothers get the care they need locally.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy passion is to continue having women\u2019s carers as close to home as possible, because some of our women travel over an hour and a half to have their baby,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Castlemaine, Maryborough and Cohuna hospitals are all in the process of redesigning their midwifery services to a group practice model, meaning mothers have a known midwife throughout and immediately following their pregnancy.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamiliarity is something really strong with women when they have babies, so that enables our midwives who have worked really hard for their degrees to practice to their full scope of practice,\u201d Ms Trevena said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hospitals are working in conjunction with La Trobe in regards to assessing the validity of these new projects as well as working with the Department of Health and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MIDWIVES came together to join an international celebration of their profession last week while calling for more students to consider taking up work in the regions. International Day of the Midwife was recognised last Thursday with an awareness walk in town, and Christine Trevena said it was a boost for her and her colleagues. \u201cThere\u2019s […]<\/p>\n