Midwives are needed in Australia’s rural and remote areas to alleviate the current crisis in access to maternity care.

That is according to Dawn Hay, from Central Queensland University’s School of Nursing and Health Studies.

“In industrialised countries, which use midwives as primary providers of maternity care, infants and mothers have better outcomes. So why is it that midwives are hard to find?” Ms Hay asked.

Ms Hay queried whether policy makers were doing enough to retain adequate numbers of midwives to provide effective and efficient midwifery service for all women and their families.

“Midwives in Central Queensland are often being left to fill the void for lack of professional resources in the provision of support and care for childbearing women and their families.

“They are not only becoming a scarce commodity as they are faced with dwindling numbers of experienced midwives; they are also becoming the minority of health professionals who are asked to do more with less.” Ms Hay said that as today (May 5) was International Midwives Day, people should thank a midwife and recognise the need to preserve their role.