About Midwives Australia
Supporting Midwives
Midwives Australia evolved out of the enormous changes in the midwifery landscape in recent decades. Since 2010 when the Federal Government introduced Medicare access and changes occurred in the insurance industry, midwives across the nation have highlighted the need for an Association to support midwives wanting to work in private practice and those moving into midwifery continuity of care.
We are a not for profit organisation supporting midwives with practical hands-on initiatives, programs and resources. We have sourced consultants who are available to mentor and support midwives and have created a huge online resource of e-health and practical communications to free Midwives from the constraints of time-consuming paperwork and get them out into the community and continuity of care where they belong.
Midwives Australia supports you in your work and strives to provide you with every service that you need to run a successful, joyful and respected midwifery practice.
Structure
The current Board of Midwives Australia comprises some of Australia’s most respected and loved midwives as well as consumers and other professionals.
Board Members
Marie Heath (President)
Marie is the current National President of Midwives Australia, having been actively involved since the organisation was created to politically lobby and represent Private Practice Midwives.
She has a wealth of midwifery experience having worked within the public health system as a midwifery manager for nearly 10 years prior to setting up her private midwifery practice, Midwyf Services.
With over 25 years working with women and their families as a private practice midwife, Marie provides clinical, business, management and mentoring skills to Midwives Australia, along with her commitment to enhancing birth choices for women across the country.
Barb Cook (Treasurer)
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Courtney Cheong ( Assistant Treasurer)
Courtney currently works across all areas of midwifery practice at a busy maternity hospital, focusing on antenatal care, birth suite, and neonatal care. During her midwifery training, she completed her placements at The Royal Women’s Hospital and Mercy Hospital for Women. She also has experience working in Laboratory Pathology and Maternal & Child Heath centres assisting with immunisations.
Women are remarkable when empowered with knowledge - I believe in your body, your baby, your choices. I work holistically with families to enhancing their childbearing journey. I have faith in physiological birth and believe Primary Maternity Care should be accessible to everyone. I aspire to create a safe, trustful and calm sanctum where continuity enriches your start to motherhood. I would like my career as a Midwife to be a statement of compassion for women.
Courtney has a special interest in neonates, prematurity and early developmental care from her own family’s experiences.
Our Team
Clare Lane (Committee Member)
Clare Lane has been providing homebirth services to Melbourne and beyond since 1988. She worked in the hospital system as well for 16 years in a variety of areas. She is also a lactation consultant having qualified in 1993. She worked in a group practice Midwives Naturally for 10 yrs. She now has her own business Clare Lane Midwifery Services Pty Ltd and is a part of the Melbourne Midwifery Collective.
The Melbourne Midwifery Collective is a directory of midwives who work side by side to provide homebirth services. It also provides mentorship to midwives wanting to get into private practice. Clare has been a member of many organisations over the years Australian College of Midwives, ILCA, Lactation Consultants of Australian and New Zealand, Australian Breastfeeding Association, Homebirth Australia, Midwives Australia, Mother’s and Midwives Action, Maternity Coalition. She recently was a member of the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia Approved Persons List and currently is a member of Safer Care Victoria’s Homebirth Guidelines committee.
Robyn Thompson (Committee Member)
Dr Robyn Thompson is an experienced midwife, family, child and maternal health nurse MCaFHN, breastfeeding specialist and founder of The Thompson Method Breastfeeding Programme. For nearly 5 decades, thousands of women and their babies have experienced the benefits of her gentle and intuitive method of breastfeeding.
After being awarded a PhD for her research into why so many women were experiencing painful nipple trauma in the early postnatal period, Dr Robyn (as she is known by her community of breastfeeding mothers) has been influential in helping women all over the world to strengthen their resolve in themselves and their instinctive skills through her online educational programs.
She is a midwife called upon by midwives, she has had the privilege of working closely with the Mater Mothers’ Hospital, Brisbane, where The Thompson Method has been tested by research under the watchful eye of Professor Sue Kildea. Robyn has presented her work at the MCaFHN Conference in August 2019 and in Prague at the ICM Conference in 2014, including many other conference presentations.
More recently, Robyn has been awarded an honorary appointment as Adjunct Associate Professor with the College of Nursing and Midwifery at Charles Darwin University, NT. She has become a mentor with a growing number of student midwives and health professionals, all keen to further their knowledge and experience. 2021 will see the launch of The Thompson Method Breastfeeding Academy, which will nurture the next generation of certified Thompson Method Practitioners.
Robyn has spent almost 6 decades in the Australian Health System and at 76 years of age, does not look like slowing down any time soon. In fact, she’s just getting started.
Hannah Quanchi (Committee Member)
After completing midwifery education Hannah worked as a graduate midwife and for a few years at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Melbourne, before moving into Private Practice which helped her gain a vast array of experiences across all areas of midwifery. Her passion for midwifery was sparked while growing up (literally) within her mother’s (Andrea Quanchi) community midwifery business. Though Hannah has been living in Melbourne since 2007, she is always drawn back to her roots and continue to work alongside the team at My Midwives Shepparton and Echuca.
Prior to working in private practice, Hannah had an experience in a number of different models of care, from busy birthing units in tertiary hospitals to hospital run home-birth teams, to small hospitals in rural Victoria.
Hannah is a strong believer in the benefits of one-to-one midwifery care and wishes to help integrate this model as affordable mainstream primary care for all families. She is passionate about empowering all women to have the best birth possible by making informed decisions.
Ebony Levi (Consumer Representative)
Ebony-Maria Levy is a Consumer Representative for Midwives Australia. She is a retired lawyer and businesswoman, now living in Canberra with her husband and two children.
Constitution
AGM and Annual Reports
Midwives Australia holds its Annual General Meeting within six months of the end of financial year. As we represent midwives across Australia, the meetings will be conducted in a capital city with the ability to participate by phone or Skype. Associate midwives are encouraged to attend and are notified of venues, dates, agenda and proposed resolutions a month prior to the AGM. All Associate midwives have voting rights and may cast one vote.
The Midwives Australia Management Committee meets a minimum of four times a year. Minutes of these meetings are circulated to Associate midwives and are available on the members area of the website.
Disclaimer
Midwives Australia is run by and for midwives. It is a not-for-profit organisation aiming to assist midwives seeking to comply with new Commonwealth legislation and practice.
To assist midwives in explaining and promoting their practices, Midwives Australia provides some resources for women seeking to employ midwifery services, as well as for students contemplating a career in midwifery.
Any information provided is for guidance purposes only and is not to be considered as medical, clinical or legal advice in any way. Women seeking midwifery services in Australia must do so in consultation with a qualified GP or Obstetrician.
Midwives Australia takes no responsibility for the actions of their Associate midwives and cannot be held responsible or accountable for any unethical, illegal or otherwise disreputable actions or statements by them. However, as we serve midwifery as a whole, rather than individual midwives, and always support excellence in midwifery practice, please inform us if you feel that the action of any member is inappropriate.