Self-employed midwives face huge costs in setting up before they can practise as a midwife. Help us support them to work in our community.

Midwifery students have up to 4 years of intense study before practising as a Registered Midwife. They spend a minimum of 2400 hours of clinical work caring for whānau in an UNPAID capacity. Bachelor of Midwifery degree demands are high, making it hard to fit in other paid work to cover living and studying costs. Much of their final year is spent providing 24 hour on-call cover alongside their midwifery mentor.

On completing their degree, they are required to pay exam fees as well as professional registration and annual practising certificate fees. Self-employed LMC midwives have additional business, clinical equipment set up, compulsory training and professional subscription costs too. We estimate an average set-up cost of $4000-$5000. Student loan repayments begin too. The limited funding available only covers a fraction of these costs.

Oxytocin Trust grants aim to alleviate some of the stress of the set-up costs for newly graduated midwives so that they can focus on the clinical and community involvement of being a midwife.