Courses to intensify for trainee midwives

New midwives will be required to birth 40 babies under supervision, instead of the current 30, before being allowed to practise on their own.

The Midwifery Council, which oversees training, has decided to increase the practical component of courses partly because of concerns from the public that graduates need more experience before handling births on their own.

Trainee midwives will also have to check on more than 200 mothers and babies before they can get their registration.

Trainees from a Canterbury-Otago midwifery school started teaching the more intensive training course this year.

Other schools will begin next year.

Midwifery Council chairwoman Sally Pairman said that between 2005 and 2007 the council reviewed midwifery training.

She said that under the revised training programmes, trainee midwives were required to do a minimum of 2400 hours practical work over three years, compared with a previous minimum of 1500 hours.

"It's about instilling experience and confidence rather than about competence," she said.

The Canterbury and Otago programmes recently began offering people the chance to study in rural areas.

Students trained with a midwife in their area, did online tutorials and visited Christchurch or Dunedin for four two-week blocks of training, Pairman said.

College of Midwives chief executive Karen Guilliland said the changes to midwifery training were exciting and would result in happier mothers, babies and graduates.

The revised programme allowed students to have a more stable relationship with prospective mothers, which would be to everyone's benefit, she said.

- © Fairfax NZ News