A proven pathway from nursing into midwifery is helping build confidence and recruit new midwives, but experienced staff remain vital to its success.

Midwife and lactation consultant Emma Gedge said placing RNs in postnatal wards as they work towards their midwifery degree has proven to be a valuable and successful recruitment pipeline.

Emma works at Wollongong Hospital and in private practice and is a member of the NSWNMA state council. She said RNs become part of the hospital’s maternity team when they become student midwives and are counted in staffing numbers while they complete their practical training.

She finds that nurses with prior maternity ward experience tend to be more confident and more certain of their career choice when they start formal midwifery studies.

“We’ve had some real successes from midwives who worked for six months on the maternity ward as an RN and then went on to do their MidStart.

“They tend to have a lot more confidence as a student midwife because they’ve been around the nitty gritty of it for six months already. They know how it works.

“Having RNs as part of staffing numbers on postnatal wards should be restricted to those RNs who have already enrolled in MidStart.”

Emma adds that while MidStart is a valuable pipeline for new midwives, the use of student midwives alone cannot solve the statewide staffing crisis in maternity. “I don’t think we should be increasing the number of students on each shift because they require significant support and supervision from senior midwives.

“There are plenty of maternity wards around the state where students could go, but it’s really important that we get the right mix of senior midwives, junior midwives, and student midwives.

While the RN to RM pipeline was important, “we also need to ensure that midwives are supported to stay in midwifery – recruitment is not enough”. 

Emma said support for student midwives varies significantly from hospital to hospital. “Support is sometimes inadequate – mainly due to shortages of qualified preceptors.

“I’ve seen an improvement in support over the last few years though it still can be very patchy.”