Any UK qualified Midwives living and working in Australia?

[wolver1ne]

I'm currently seriously considering relocating to Western Australia from the UK.

I've been a midwife here for 10 years and was wondering if anyone has any information on how complicated it is to register with the Nursing and Midwifery authority in Australia? Also, how does the maternity system compare with the NHS?

I currently work in a birth setting and would ideally like to continue this in Australia so I'm looking at city areas with a maternity hospital provision. My current practice is low risk but I have a lot of high risk labour ward experience.

Any advice?

I don't know how much use this will be (probably none!) but I gave birth almost 5 months ago in Sydney in a big public hospital and a lot of my midwives were from the UK or Irish. It was really nice at we only moved here last September. Even my consultant was a Mancunian! I have no idea about qualifications transferring but the fact that a huge proportion of the staff was from the UK would suggest isn't not too hard.

Chatting to my consultant about the NHS, she said she will never go back and loves the public system here. She said she was shocked by stories from old NHS colleagues when she went back for a trip recently.

King edward is the main maternity hospital in perth wa. Lots of uk midwives. It has a birthing centre plus high risk/ high dependency areas and deals with all complicated births in wa. In private hospitals there is no midwife led care as far as i know. The system generally is not as strained as the nhs however currently wa is economically very flat with massive public debt so worth looking into job prospects before you book a flight!

Thanks for these replies. We are at a pretty early planning stage at the moment so just looking into whether I can work, if he can work, schools etc. Not got heart set on Perth, would be willing to look at Sydney or Melbourne as well.

I think my main concern was around the role of the mw in Australia - I'm predominantly a low risk mw in a birth centre used to working pretty autonomously. I don't want to move to a heavily obstetric led model of care.

Health care in Aus is basically split into the private and public systems. Public maternity care is usually midwife-led, unless high risk.

As lasthurrah mentioned, King Edward (KEMH) is the tertiary women's hospital in Perth, located fairly centrally in Subiaco. There are also maternity units in other hospitals around suburbs. And of course there are regional hospitals around the state too.

Don't worry about the impact of the flat state economy. Public healthcare is federally funded.

I love Melbourne, and Sydney is appealing to many. But the cost of housing in both those cities is outrageous at the moment. Make sure you do your homework on the cost of renting & buying.

Hey, I know it’s been a few years but I found your post when googling the same and just wanted to ask how you got along? I’m in the process of sorting out my APHRA and ANMAC applications. I have visited a couple of units in Perth and met with some midwives when I was there, totally fell in love with the place!!