Project Midwife: A student midwife journey
Picture this: In a hospital, a birth centre or at home, a woman in labour is groaning in distress. Their partner kneels beside them holding hands and gritting teeth. The midwife is there, too, promoting a sense of calm while ensuring that both mother and soon-to-be-born are safe.
Of course, there’s more to midwifery than supporting women through the intense, breathtaking and momentous occasion of childbirth. It is but one part of a profession that aims to provide care that meets the physical, psychological, emotional and social needs of women — before, during and after labour.
But would it be fair to say that most graduate midwives go into the job completely terrified at what might happen during those first few births, and how they’re going to handle it?
“I would say we probably experience that throughout our degree, not just as graduates,” says Stacey Judd, a third-year midwifery student at ACU in Melbourne.
“There’s always this crisis of confidence that comes before a placement, and it’s always going to be a massive learning curve. Even though you’ve been well supported and you’ve got all the knowledge you need to go into that profession, you are always going to say, ‘Am I the right person for this job?’
“But I think it’s about learning to be adaptable and flexible, and at the end of the day, just reminding yourself of the fact that you’re here for women, and that you’re supporting them.”
Helping student midwives through this confidence-building process is Bachelor of Midwifery course coordinator, Dr Jen Hocking. She joined the ACU teaching staff in 2018, having worked for many years as a midwife in the Victorian maternity care system.
“From the time I first started seeing ACU students at the hospital where I worked, I was blown away by them,” says Jen, whose research explores mother-and-baby matters.
“They were just a different kind student midwife — passionate, engaged and interested — and when I started working with graduates, I found the same thing. They were like a different breed. They’re absolutely focused on being midwives, and they’re very well-prepared to be amazing midwives.”
A more recent arrival to ACU’s Bachelor of Midwifery program is Professor Sara Bayes, an accomplished researcher who has been a midwife since 2003. When she joined ACU as its new Head of Midwifery in mid-2020, she set her sights on establishing a strong research culture within the discipline.
“The opportunity was there for us to create something really beautiful, which we have,” says Sara, whose research interest areas include the quality and effectiveness of antenatal education, and the psycho-emotional wellbeing of the midwifery workforce.
“We’ve now got a thriving research culture, with every academic leading a research theme, and we’ve extended that community to midwifery students to join our research group, whatever stage they’re at.”
Realising that ACU midwifery undergrads were “a fairly elite group” of students, Professor Bayes quickly moved to tap into their enthusiasm and resourcefulness. In late 2020, she approached undergrads involved with ACU’s Melbourne Midwifery Society with “a mad, ambitious idea” to start a student journal.
In response, the Society, which is known by its members as “MidSoc”, agreed to launch the journal. They named it Project Midwife.
“Once they committed to two issues a year, we just let them run with it and didn’t get involved at all, until we saw the first draft, which just brought tears to our eyes,” Sara says.
