midwife.

Typical roles of a midwife include:

• supervising and providing care during pregnancy: as a midwife, you advise women on pregnancy dos and don'ts. You offer nutritional advice and solutions for managing emotional and physical changes like morning sickness. For instance, you recommend vitamins to help sustain pregnancy and maternal health and educate women on medications to avoid. You also suggest antenatal exercises to ensure the mother is ready for birth.
• providing antenatal care: as a midwife, you are responsible for antenatal care. That means performing screen tests at the hospital or mining community health centre. You also do the bloodwork and check vital signs to ensure the pressure is normal, and the patient doesn't have other health conditions. After the screening, you discuss the results with patients and recommend ways to improve pregnancy health.
• conducting deliveries: a midwife delivers babies at patients' homes or a healthcare facility. It is crucial to be familiar with water births and be able to identify high-risk pregnancies. While you cannot perform a caesarean, you can recommend obstetricians or other medical specialists to assist with high-risk pregnancies. Even when you don't assist in delivery, you are there to offer support and help with neonatal care.
• providing counselling and support: as a midwife, you support your patient throughout the pregnancy. That means you educate them on their expectations. If they have a miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal health condition, you provide support and advice.
• educating women on parenthood: as a midwife, you participate in community programmes that educate women about managing parenting. You also advise women on contraception and nutrition.

As a midwife, you work in hospitals and community health centres. Usually, you work indoors in the maternity units of large hospitals or general practices in the community. You also conduct home visits and assist with home deliveries. Your work setting is mentally and emotionally demanding. It also involves a lot of travelling to people's homes to attend births or assist women with complications. When working in hospitals, you wear uniforms like other nurses and protective equipment to minimise infections.

Depending on your employer and the industry you work in, your colleagues might include clinical nurses, radiographers, gynaecologists and paediatricians. You might also be working in close proximity to general nurses, paediatric nurses and nurse unit managers, as well as other specialists that could include, but not be limited to, doctors, pharmacists, laboratory technicians and nurse coordinators.

The working hours of a midwife include unsocial hours and overtime work. Full-time midwives typically work 37 hours a week providing care to pregnant women in hospitals. You are likely to work 8 to 12-hour shifts, including day, night and weekend shifts. Sometimes, you work during bank holidays.

As a community midwife, your work hours are quite flexible depending on your patients. However, you are on-call 24 hours a day in case of complications. Sometimes, you visit your patients at night to help them deliver. Part-time opportunities are available when you work for private hospitals, and you can take a career break whenever you want.

You start as a trainee or junior midwife and improve your skills until you attain a senior midwife position. When you have extensive experience, you become a team leader, head nurse or ward manager. With enough training, you can also become a director of midwifery.

Alternatively, specialise in specific midwifery duties like becoming an ultrasound or antenatal specialist. Some midwives become postnatal or breastfeeding experts, while others become neonatal paediatricians. It is also possible to become a lecturer or a consultant midwife.

Finding your midwife job through Randstad provides important advantages such as:

• a wide variety of training and development opportunities
• an experienced contact person to provide help if needed
• a range of opportunities in your area
• get paid weekly or monthly, depending on the job
• temporary and permanent contracts

Want a permanent contract? A temporary job as a midwife is often a stepping stone to an attractive permanent job. Every year, thousands of people earn a permanent contract with great employers thanks to a temporary job found through Randstad. What's more, many companies recruit their permanent employees through Randstad too.

As a midwife, you are the main point of contact for pregnant women. Hence, being trustworthy, personable and well-informed is crucial. When you are approachable, women feel able to discuss their concerns during pregnancy. Good listening skills also make you a great midwife since you will provide the best care for patients.

Midwifery is an exciting career in Australia with exceptional opportunities in the public and private sectors. You also have great opportunities for career growth and specialisation. For example, midwives can improve their skills to become nursing managers or gynaecologists.

Complete a bachelor's degree in midwifery to become a midwife. A postgraduate qualification like a graduate diploma is a great way to join the role if you are registered. It is highly recommended to register with the NMBA to practise.

You don't require a nursing qualification or to become a registered nurse to work as a midwife in Australia. You can practise nursing if you complete a bachelor's degree in midwifery and register with the nursing and midwifery board.

Midwives work up to 37 hours weekly. However, in a full-time position, you are likely to work 8 to 12-hour shifts assisting nurses at the hospital. Midwives working part-time roles often work less than 8 hours a day, covering shifts for other nurses.

Applying for a midwife job is easy: create a Randstad profile and search our job offers for vacancies in your area. Then send us your CV and cover letter. Need help with your application? Check out all our job search tips here.