Midwives look forward to life changing experience in Vanuatu
Four Wintec midwifery students will take part in an experience of a lifetime when they travel to Vanuatu next month to volunteer at Port Vila Hospital.
Annie Frogley, Kathy Hannah, Shivangi Topiwala and Tertia van der Walt will spend two weeks working alongside Ni-Vanuatu midwives in the hospital’s maternity ward where they’ll provide labour support including maternal and foetal monitoring, help deliver babies and provide post-natal care.
The time spent in Vanuatu will then count towards the more than 2400 hours of clinical practice that makes up part of the Bachelor of Midwifery degree.
Wintec’s midwifery tutor, Fiona Hermann says students who have spent time in Vanuatu hospitals in the past have come back with a new appreciation for the New Zealand health care system.
“The experience is a real eye-opener, and it can be quite life changing for our students. They find it personally challenging and really enjoyable.
“They learn a lot from the local midwives, deliver babies, hone clinical skills and gain exposure to the complexities of a health system in a developing country,” she says.
Frogley says the benefits they’ll gain from the experience are three-fold.
“Through spending time in Port Vila, we’re able to give the country some much-needed help, particularly in light of Cyclone Pam - that’s our primary motivation.
“The high number of births in the hospital means we’re able to care for many women with minimal technological intervention in a short time period. Plus, we’ll be exposed to a new health system which we know is very different to New Zealand and I think that will be a big eye-opener for us,” she says.
With all four students being in their final year of the midwifery degree, Hannah believes now is the right time to do something like this.
“We’ve got to the stage where we’ve had work placements, we’re becoming confident with our knowledge and skills and we’re ready for this challenge,” says Hannah.
“Being a midwife is really about empowering women. Often women will come out of the experience proud of what they’ve achieved, and that’s what we hope to inspire in these women during our time in Vanuatu.
“Giving birth is something a mother never forgets and we feel privileged to be part of such a precious experience,” she says.
The group will be supervised by both New Zealand and Ni-Vanuatu midwives
The group will head over with two New Zealand registered midwives and will be supervised by the head of the hospital’s maternity unit (who is a New Zealand midwife) along with a number of Ni-Vanuatu midwives.
To take part in the programme, Wintec students must then apply to Wintec for approval and their applications are assessed based on level of achievement and feedback from previous clinical placements. The placement is part of the ongoing support provided by the New Zealand midwifery community to the Vanuatu midwives.
This is the largest group of Wintec students to take part in the programme. Until now, 10 Wintec students have spent time in Vanuatu hospitals and Solomon Islands since 2012.
