Midwives still waiting for Budget clarity 

“It would have been nice to get something specific for midwifery”

As the dust settles on last Thursday’s Budget numbers, midwifery is still waiting to hear what’s in store for them.

New Zealand College of Midwives chief executive Alison Eddy says nothing in the Budget is specifically for midwifery, and while she assumes there will be some money to come, she has no idea when they will find out more.

“It would have been nice to get something specific for midwifery.”

She notes that information on the comprehensive primary care teams and its associated funding do not mention midwifery or other similar services, which she says are core primary healthcare.

“I’m not quite sure what that means. So, we’re just keen to find out more about what chunk [we get] and what it means, in detail.”

The midwifery sector needs more funding, Ms Eddy says, specifically, she suggests midwives need fair and reasonable pay; “a decent increase”.

They’re also desperate for workforce retention support, she says.

“What we’re really concerned around is workforce. It’s a major issue in the hospitals and in the community.”

The sector has welcomed some recent funding which supports Māori and Pacific undergraduate students and the introduction of a clinical coach role in DHBs to support retention initiatives, she says.

“But we would like to be able to explore more of these sorts of things so we can actually retain midwifes in the workforce.”

When asked how much this might cost, Ms Eddy says, “Lots of money. These things are not cheap.”

Having represented the College of Midwives as chief executive since January 2019, Ms Eddy says she is committed to providing services that support members to provide high-quality maternity care to parents and babies.

Ms Eddy is keen to clarify what the new health system will look like for midwifery, despite information on the primary healthcare teams not mentioning them.

“How do we start to build and develop models that will enable midwifery to integrate into the new health system model in the community?

“It’s not really clear if there’s any cognisance to that.”