Prepare to be transported down under to the 25th National Australian College of Midwifery Conference! Join us on a whirlwind tour of this vibrant event that saw us interacting with brilliant minds in midwifery, discussing diverse topics and hearing the future exciting changes coming to midwifery in Australia.
Do you know someone who should tell their story?
email me - thruthepodcast@gmail.com
The aim is for this to be a fortnightly podcast with extra episodes thrown in
This podcast can be found on various socials as @thruthepinardd and our website -https://thruthepinardpodcast.buzzsprout.com/ or ibit.ly/Re5V
Prepare to be transported down under to the 25th National Australian College of Midwifery Conference! Join us on a whirlwind tour of this vibrant event that saw us interacting with brilliant minds in midwifery, discussing diverse topics and hearing the future exciting changes coming to midwifery in Australia.
Do you know someone who should tell their story?
email me - thruthepodcast@gmail.com
The aim is for this to be a fortnightly podcast with extra episodes thrown in
This podcast can be found on various socials as @thruthepinardd and our website -https://thruthepinardpodcast.buzzsprout.com/ or ibit.ly/Re5V
And welcome back and thanks for joining. Yes, there's been a bit of a gap between episodes. Life has been a tad busy but we are slowly getting back into it and this week in particular has been full on because we have had the 25th National Australian College of Midwifery Conference here. The theme of it was be the change, and there are certainly midwives out there who are making changes and who are part of the changes coming. Give you a little bit of background information. These are some of the numbers. Looking at the program, there were over a thousand abstracts submitted and from those a thousand abstracts submitters, we had 80 oral 15 minute presentations and we had 35 posters. Now, the really cool thing about this conference this year was that, whilst the posters were displayed in the main concourse, that they were also given five minutes each at the end of the oral presentation sessions to give more information or give some backup, and that was really cool and really well received because it gave opportunities to provide that little bit more information.
Speaker 1:We had a total of four rooms going concurrently with presentations and one room going with workshops, and so these were pre-registration workshops and these were very well received. We had how to be the change and a workshop on implementing midwifery continuity of care models. We had best practice care after perinatal loss and subsequent pregnancy care. We had brave foundations supporting expecting and parenting teens Midwives at the centre of preterm birth prevention To be the change in bedding cultural safety and humility in a Bachelor of midwifery curriculum. Changing practice by strengthening interprofessional collaboration in perinatal mental health using augmented reality. And a workshop looking at workforce building on what we know to create a sustainable workforce, midwifery workforce for the future. And when you're looking at the themes of each of the concurrent sessions in the four different rooms, we started with improving clinical outcomes, supporting the future of midwifery, changing rural practice, birthing at home, midwifery workforce, midwifery led models, culturally safe and responsible care. Change through reflection systems and strategies. Sensitive midwifery, overcoming barriers, enhancing pregnancy outcomes, supporting birth choices, the mother baby dyad. Maintaining the fluid balance, starting conversation, reviewing our practice, women at the centre, sharing wisdom, postnatal care and emergency preparedness. So you can see that there was a range and within all of those sub themes there were four presentations and generally two posters. That fit as well. So lots of information to think about, lots of room hopping for some people, others stayed in the same room and getting an idea from all around Australia, but also from New Zealand and a couple of international visitors as well.
Speaker 1:We had students presenting for the first time. We had graduates presenting for the first time. We had midwives presenting for the first time and coming through and sharing their passion, sharing the activities that they are doing and then having the great conversations and making networks and connections to expand that research or for someone to go. We've got the same problem can we talk and we can actually do it here? We also had some fantastic plenary sessions, as always. We had a welcome to country by a Ghana elder, because we were on Ghana land, and that was Uncle Mickey, and he encouraged us all to take a gum leaf and within the gum leaf is the knowledge of the land, and he encouraged us all to swap that gum leaf with somebody else because as we touch it, we input our knowledge onto that gum leaf and as we give that gum leaf to somebody else, it's a symbolic passing of our knowledge onto them, but a two way learning of us then receiving their leave and us receiving their knowledge as well, and that two way learning was something that's really important and understanding and appreciation of respect.
Speaker 1:We had a talk by the local state minister, health minister. We also had an update on the chief nursing and midwifery officer and they were. It was really quite exciting about some of the changes that are occurring. Some of the scopes that are happening at the moment in particular is the midwifery scope of practice Looking at where the boundaries are to midwives being able to work a full scope of practice. We haven't had a lot of changing with the endorsed midwife standards since it came out in 2010. So there's been a lot of changes around collaboration that have come through that are still waiting to be formalized through legislation. So we are on the precipice of real advancement and understanding from other disciplines and other factors of society of what midwives can do, and so the more that we're able to work to our full scope of practice then the better the health is going to be for the community.
Speaker 1:Our first speaker for the conference was on authentic midwifery leadership and it was Professor Jacqueline Dunkley Bent. So she is the ICM's first chief midwife, but she was also reflecting on her role as the UK chief midwife sorry, the English chief midwife during COVID and how that in any times of adversity, we can react in two ways. We can put our hands up in a flurry and say it's all too much, or we can roll our sleeves up and dig down and start looking and working at the problem. She also talked about the importance for senior people to check under the waterline and to see what's actually happening in the foundations, and she told a story of working on a clinical shift and having to follow a policy that she said but this I can't follow, this it doesn't make sense. And then was told by the senior midwife she was working with will she write that policy? So, once again, having that, maintaining that connection in some way, and it's not an abstract people who are writing policies that cannot be morally followed as well as practically followed within those that are working on the floor, whichever of that floor that may be. So that was really quite inspiring. And also looking at where she's going in the future she's only been in this role for two months and where it's going to go and what she's already seeing and how it works. And that, once again, that authentic midwifery leadership that we need midwives at every table, that decisions are made and we need them to get up there, and that's still midwifery. It's more than the clinical is important, but it's also having the midwife step up in the governance and in the leadership areas as well. We also had an update from the Nursing Midwifery Board of Australia what's happening there and, once again, looking at encouraging and promoting our scope of practice. That the board doesn't actually tell us what to scope of practice is, but it is how it's mostly. The barriers are put up through venues and trying to get them to understand. We also looked at fare and the pregnancy and alcohol use and looking at fetal alcohol syndrome and so discussions on what we can do and how we can change practice, especially within Australia, where it is deemed a drinking country, even though we are slowly decreasing that amount.
Speaker 1:Our final talk for the day before we went to socialise was by Professor Hannah Daylin and she was talking about how we are going, what needs to change and how do we make it happen. She used a really interesting reflective tool by looking back at a talk that she did 17 years ago and looked at where she saw midwifery, where she wanted to see midwifery and her wish list for where midwifery would be in the future. She did a traffic light system on what's been achieved, what has started and what is still the same or worse and then trying to channel that into the future of okay, so where do we still need to work? And basically challenging all of us to be the mentors for the ones coming through, but also to help promote those that are coming through, and to ourselves as well. So we need to work together, we need to champion each other and champion ourselves.
Speaker 1:The next morning we had a message from the Federal Minister of Health, once again talking about other changes, legislative changes that will come across after the changing and removal of collaboration agreements. Things are tied up. They are slowly unraveling them because there are lots of legislations that are hooked into legislations. So, whilst it is a slow process, they are very, very determined to continue that going through. So we then had an amazing session with, led by Professor Yvette Rowe from the Moli Wajiguga Research Centre, with Dr Sarah Ireland and Dr Elaine Waraapua, and Dr Elaine, or Aunty Elaine, is from the Yonkala lands and with her group and Sarah, they filmed and created the Jacomir film, which is about the two sisters who walk the land, and whenever their walking stick hit the land, they created water holes.
Speaker 1:And in the water holes there was life, there was knowledge, there was stories and it was looking at what they had done to what they have doing now and the importance of the stories and keeping the stories going and kinship, and it was really quite an amazing hour and a bit session with lots of people wiping away tears as they heard things. They also showed a couple of videos that they have made from the Better Start to Life conference which was held in October last year, which I attended and did a summary with Talia, one of my colleagues and Aboriginal midwife. We went there and one of the things that they had there was a little booth and they were asking people what does birthing on country mean to them? And what they've done is they've turned that into a fabulous 20 minute film looking at and explaining birthing on country to different people and how it is broader than just physically birthing on land. It's a metaphysical, it's a psychological component as well and so they're new resources to encourage and understanding. So that was really that was launched and that was really good to see.
Speaker 1:And then we ended the that day with a panel looking and exploring endorsed midwifery and we had a really good conversation on and from endorsed midwives of where they've come from, what some of the barriers and the challenges are state differences and where we need to go in the future. And one of the big conversations is looking at and this came from the regulatory discussions as well is at the moment they are endorsed. You need to have qualifications postgraduate qualifications of 5000 hours to become this advanced practitioner midwife who can prescribe. But then it's looking at the future and there's going to be a survey coming out in the next couple of months to every midwife in Australia asking us what we think should the hours be reduced and looking at in the future having every graduated midwife come out with the knowledge of being able to prescribe safely. And when they're looking at the safety issue of midwifery prescribers, there have been no incidents, so they are very safe, and it's getting other people on board and having those discussions which are happening and looking at well, why should we in the future need to have this extra if we can actually bring it back and have every midwife doing that, and the pressures that could take off of the hospital system, the delays that could prevent for women, especially around discharge, or with information that the return on investment for having midwives who can prescribe is brilliant, and so that was a fantastic start to the conversation and another area that is going to be really interesting to watch over the next five years, I think, especially because the education standards have only just changed in 2021. So that means that we'll start consulting in a year or two for the next ones that will hopefully be due in 2026.
Speaker 1:We had the Ranskog president come and speak to us as well about working together and the things that we have done together with the ACM and Ranskog and how they want to work together in the future, and a new program that they are rolling out that is working for obstetrics, gps, midwives, nurses, to include the communication and functionality and support, more so from target areas and satellites, and so that's got some increased funding, which will be good to see once this rolled out. We had a talk by Sarah Kinnellberg, who is the expert in perineal repair, and how her GainZone is and can be used to supporting learning from novice to expert in perineal suturing and looking at some of the resources, which are fabulous, and some of the ways that they are training the midwifery students, not only in Denmark but in, I think, over 100 countries it's being used and the online panel that can be used, and she was talking about how they've got it so it runs on PC, runs on tablet, it runs on mobile phones. And then they're also talking to their technology people about modifying the videos so that you can actually use your smartwatch and, kind of like, just watch a video while you're kind of waiting to do something. So you've got it right there. And then the resources, which I think is quite amazing and is, let's face it, the future. We then had another panel, once again looking at regulatory issues, and we had a chief nursing and midwifery officer panel. So we had acting and chief midwives from New South Wales, northern Territory, act. We had the chief midwife advisory officer, we had the board. So looking at once again some of the regulatory things, because whilst we are focused on birthing and helping women and gender diverse people birth, it is also about everything else that comes into it, which is why midwifery is much more broader than catching a baby, though that term is frustrating.
Speaker 1:We then had a disco themed 70s dinner in the Adelaide Oval, which was brilliant and actually it's a really nice dinner. The food was quite nice, lots of people were frocking up into glitters and sequins and kind of short skirts and long boots and wigs, and lots of photos were coming out. There used to be a kind of a saying that what happened at conference dinners stayed at conference dinners Social media. I'm not sure that happens anymore, but there was a lot of people that were having fun. I piked out early, but the dancing floor kind of left a lot of sore legs the next morning. So the morning after the last morning of the conference we had an original song presentation. So Lucy Mount was a student who wrote a song for an assignment that she was doing. That got picked up and it was about birthing and she's written another song, so that was presented.
Speaker 1:We had Dr Annette Barley talking about changing practice and how midwives are pivotal within that, and we've had that theme as well of midwives need to step up that. Yes, being involved in Interprofessional practice and research is absolutely important, but we are also qualified to run those trials as well. We don't have to just be the tech the tech on. We ask questions, we look at things in a different way that we are qualified within our own rights to actually lead those trials and to lead other professions as well. And then we had Nicole Higgett from COPE who was talking about implementing change and innovative approaches to ensuring best practice in Perinatal mental health and then, at the end of the day, there are still people there, always presenting the first morning after a conference. It's hard work, but there were people turning up and there were still lots of people left For the very last session, although some had gone off to adventures in the glorious place that is Adelaide.
Speaker 1:We had an amazing presentation and story by Sophie Smith. Now Sophie Smith founded Running for premature babies charities, and she told the story of how, 17 years ago, she was pregnant with triplets and how, at 21 weeks, unfortunately, one of her boys Was birthed but did not survive. But the hour that he did, she talked about how meaningful that hour was. She got to hold him Because of the support of the midwife. There were photos how, in that hour, he knew nothing but love. She then talked about her rest of her journey, of trying to get through past 24 weeks, which she did For the other two boys, and then going through their journals unfortunately both of them also died and so looking at what they could do to Help the venues that looked after them, because at one stage they were talking that there was not enough nikkubeds in the hospital that she needed to be in, so she was transferred.
Speaker 1:There was not enough there, she was transferred back, and then at one stage there was the the, the threat almost of if the boys were born at that time, they would be separated in different hospitals in different states, and so, thankfully, she held on for a little bit longer and then in a couple of days later, when they were born, there would happen to be two babies that had graduated out of NICU and so they were able to be kept together. That was when she started thinking of what they can do to raise money To buy more equipment. So this didn't happen again, and since they've been running they've raised over six million dollars. They've given equipment and monitors and chemocrates and resusciters and Cots to a variety of both Metro and also regional hospitals in every state of Australia. And Then the final presentation was by ACM vice president Zoe Bradfield, who is just glorious to listen to talk, and she talked about how to have a bold and beautiful career and the difference between having a job and a career and Looking at where those where you can have a job and a job can be within midwifery but it can be clinically, can be education, it can be academic, it can be leadership, it can be governance and it's all still midwifery. But the jobs can take you in different places and we need people to step up to all those different places because they are equally as important.
Speaker 1:And then it was a matter of hugs and hugging goodbye and catching up in a year's time or making time or promising to email people or Catching up going. We'll have a zoom conversation about that and we'll talk about that more. So the really cool thing about a face-to-face conference again is that we can catch up in breaks, start those conversations and then continue them. And I quite like having cold coffee at conferences because it usually means I've been talking to someone in that coffee break and that you don't get at virtual conferences or it's really really hard to kind of do that at virtual conferences. And so that connection again.
Speaker 1:We had a beautiful first year student who came and who was understandably feeling a little bit overwhelmed, had initially not liked research. She'd come to the conference and was sitting talking to her at the dinner and she's now passionate of how do students get involved in research. Like I want to do more now, I want to get involved in more. And it's like, well, you've got your topics and then you've got your honours and it's like, but I want to get involved now. So having the ability to change somebody's focus, to change kind of dramatically where they see themselves of going, I wasn't really sure, but I've been on placement, yep, I totally love it. Now I've come here. Oh, my goodness, I really love it. I can see and I like this and I want to go there, and then how do you work out where you go?
Speaker 1:So conferences can change people's lives. They can change people's directions fundamentally and it is about hooking up the right people. It's about going up to somebody who you've read a paper about and kind of gone high. I read your paper. It was really interesting. We did this with it.
Speaker 1:Every author wants to hear that it's not about people are being unreachable.
Speaker 1:Yes, a lot of people are busy in conferences because they are catching up with people they may not have seen. But use it as an opportunity to go up and say thank you to someone, to tell, as Hannah says tell someone that they're an inspiration, that you've got something out of them. You've got something, that something they wrote inspired you, because that's that human touch that we all like. So next year conference is in Melbourne in September. In Melbourne they're going to put their expressions of interest for abstracts out in November. So if you're wanting a trip down to Melbourne for a fabulous conference, then start thinking about what abstracts you're going to be. They'll have the information out about the theme as well and I will be putting out more episodes. I'm about to head out Bush for a week to decompress after a very busy and social week this week, and then we'll have some more episodes coming out and we might have some extra double episodes that will put two episodes up a week to kind of catch up on the last month that hasn't been there.