A 2024 national Australian review revealed that one in three midwives are considering leaving the profession due to burnout, stress, and low job satisfaction.  

Australia’s midwifery workforce is increasingly described as being in “crisis”, with midwives working under intense pressure, carrying heavy emotional loads, and often lacking traditional support networks. Workforce shortages, poor skill mix, inadequate practice environments, and inflexible work options continue to add to this strain. 

In response to these escalating pressures, researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) examined whether Group Clinical Supervision (GCS) could help reduce burnout among midwives working in public maternity services.  

Lead author Professor Christine Catling noted that “Midwives carry a significant emotional and physical load,” explaining that “[s]upport that allows them time to pause and reflect on the challenges they face can make the daily pressures more manageable.” 

The study followed around 2,000 midwives across 12 public maternity services in NSW over more than two years. At the randomised intervention sites, midwives were offered monthly, = hour‑long face‑to‑face GCS sessions facilitated by trained senior midwifery academics. These confidential small‑group sessions created a structured space for midwives to share experiences and work together on strategies to manage the demands of their workplace. 

The results were clear: access to GCS had a significant positive impact on midwives, with benefits extending beyond the sessions themselves. 

“Midwives told us that simply knowing the support was available made them feel more valued, creating a sense that their wellbeing mattered to the organisation,” Catling said. 

Sites offering monthly GCS reported lower burnout rates, and the researchers suggest that even greater reductions may be possible if sessions were offered more frequently. 

“Scaling up the provision of GCS could have profound effects on the present attrition of skilled midwives currently occurring in health services, nationally and internationally, and would ultimately positively affect the care of women, childbearing people and babies.”