NEW mums and babies deserve the best possible care which is why the State Government is expanding maternity services and recruiting the next generation of midwives.
Minister for Health Mary–Anne Thomas last week visited Kilmore District Health to celebrate International Day of the Midwife and open their new maternity ward.
"Our midwives deliver new mums and babies the best care every single day and we're delivering them the extra support they need," Ms Thomas said.
"Across Victoria, we're expanding maternity services, upgrading birthing suites, recruiting more midwives and making it free to study or retrain in midwifery."
"Nursing and midwifery is a physical job and the 12–month Late Career Nurses and Midwives pilot will support senior nurses and midwives, work a day a week off the ward and in turn use that day and their experience to help to develop new midwives and nurses through education support, professional development and mentorship.
"As Victoria continues to boom, we know we need to grow our midwifery workforce and our Registered Undergraduate Students of Midwifery (RUSOM) is doing just that – last year we invested $9.8 million to expand the program, which has now supported more than 300 midwifery students take up work on maternity wards while studying," Ms Thomas said.
Working under the supervision of experienced midwives, RUSOMs deliver care and support to new and expectant mums and their babies and are also provided a range of training to assist them in their studies and give them the most contemporary skills and expertise in patient care.
The RUSOM program has seen participants become more likely to complete their degree, develop greater levels of confidence, require less support once they graduate and seen a third of them receiving ongoing employment at the same health service after graduating.