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“Midwives provide safe, women-focused services that families can trust”

Midwives are specialists in pregnancy and childbirth. They complete a three-year degree known as the ‘Bachelor of Midwifery’ in order to gain the knowledge, skills and experience they have to provide safe and professional midwifery care.

Midwives practice in different settings. They work in the community and provide birth care at home, in birthing units and in hospitals. [If you would like to read the Midwifery Council of New Zealand's Midwifery Scope of Practice, the legal definition of midwifery in New Zealand, click here]

Midwives provide free maternity care to all eligible women in New Zealand and over 75% of women today have a midwife as their Lead Maternity carer (LMC).

Midwives in New Zealand work in a partnership model of care with women. In this model each woman and her midwife are partners, working together to ensure that the woman has care that best meets her individual needs. The woman and the midwife get to know each other well over the whole maternity experience, building a relationship of trust with each other, sharing information and decision-making and recognising the active role that both play in the woman’s maternity care.

Services provided by midwives include some or all of the following:

• Preconceptual advice
• Free pregnancy testing
• Antenatal care and assessments throughout your pregnancy with visits at home or at the midwife’s clinic. This includes arranging any necessary blood tests or investigative procedures.
• Consultation with an obstetrician or other specialist if complications arise at any time during pregnancy, labour and birth or the weeks following.
• Information and education on a one-on-one basis and for groups
• Time for questions and planning to meet you and your family’s needs
• Support and professional care throughout labour and birth in the place of your choice
• Labour and birth pool hire
• Support, advice and professional care after your baby is born and for 4 – 6 weeks afterwards
• Early discharge home if you birth in hospital
• Support, advice and assistance with breastfeeding and caring for your baby
• Contraceptive advice
• Discharge from midwifery care when you are ready at about 4 – 6 weeks and referral on to the Plunket nurse, iwi provider, other well child provider or general practitioner. These practitioners can provide support and assist with ongoing care such as immunisation and well child checks.

To practise as a midwife in New Zealand, the midwife must have an annual practising certificate issued by the Midwifery Council of New Zealand.

The New Zealand College of Midwives (NZCOM) sets and actively promotes high standards for midwifery practice. The NZCOM assists midwives to meet these through involvement in midwifery education and the Midwifery Standards Review process.

New Zealand midwives work in a partnership model of care with women. In this model each woman and her midwife are partners, working together to ensure that the woman has care that best meets her individual needs. The woman and the midwife get to know each other well over the whole maternity experience, building a relationship of trust with each other, sharing information and decision-making and recognising the active role that both play in the woman’s maternity care.

The building of relationships between midwives and women during pregnancy contributes to many women’s sense of security in labour. Women are discovering that the safest places to give birth are at home or in a birthing centre. Only a few women actually need to give birth in hospital because of complications. Women are most likely to labour best in a place where they feel free, safe and private, with midwives whom they know and trust. For most women this will be at home or in a birthing centre where they can be in control of who is there and what happens.

Midwives care is founded on respect for normal pregnancy and birth as healthy processes and profound events in a woman’s life and that of her family. Women and their families are finding out that they can benefit from the care of a midwife. They are learning that pregnancy and childbirth are normal, healthy processes, not illnesses. We know that midwifery care results in less chance of complications, fewer interventions, and healthier births for themselves and their babies.

Midwife means ‘with women’

Midwifery care is the provision of knowledge, advice, care and support to women and their families during pregnancy, labour and birth and the early weeks following birth

Midwives: providing safe outcomes for women and babies

The World Health Organisation states that... ‘the midwife is the most appropriate and cost effective type of health care provider to be assigned to the care of normal pregnancy and normal birth, including risk assessment and the recognition of complications’ (WHO 1996)

Midwives: the ‘experts’ in their field

Pregnancy and labour are seen as normal life events which occur within the life of a family - this is the focus of the midwife’s expertise. 88% of women had ‘normal’ births where the midwife was the lead maternity carer and 86% were still breastfeeding at six weeks (NZCOM 1996).

Midwives: the 'core' of the maternity service

All women having babies require midwifery care. Midwives provide the ‘core’ of the care in the maternity service. They work with obstetric specialists as needed

Midwives: enabling women to make informed decisions

Midwives offer a range of information on which women can make decisions about their care. A supportive relationship enables the woman to make decisions that are right for her and her family

Midwives: there to provide one-to-one support and care during labour

Midwives are the primary caregiver for women during labour; providing care that facilitates the natural process of labour whenever possible. Labour support and care are enhanced by the benefits of a relationship established during pregnancy.

Midwives: providing continuity of care

Midwives provide continuity of care from conception to discharge at four - six weeks after the baby is born.

This article was reproduced with kind permission from the New Zealand College of Midwives.