A notebook of 40 years of midwifery with midwife Wendy Lloyd

5 May 2017

5 May 2017

Since the beginning of your career, can you reflect on the changes to midwifery?

These days there is a direct partnership with our obstetric, paediatric and anaesthetic consultants, which is incredibly supportive and rewarding. 

They give freely of their time to present in house lectures at a time that allows night duty midwives to attend and often download articles from their professional journals at our request. 

I am happy to see that evidence-based care is the best challenge of all, with research looking at research! 

Our new midwives may find new words a challenge, such as bio technology, epi-genetics and also will need to constantly find new ways to combat information available to new mums from Facebook, Dr Google and social media, which leads to lots of misinformation. 

The daughter I brought to Australia some 30 years ago has also chosen to be ‘with women’. She is strong and determined to support women to uphold their birth rights, while promoting evidence-based care.  

The future is in good hands. 

When did you start your career in midwifery?

I commenced my Registered General Nursing training in 1972 at Kilmarnock Infirmary, Ayrshire Scotland which is recognised for dairy herds and the poet Robert Burns. 

General Nursing training was three and a half years, residential, blue uniform, paper cap with one to 3 blue stripes. 

To become a ‘Sister’ or in charge person chances were poor without a second certificate. If successful one would have a frilly cap which needed plenty of starch to give it importance and of course the silver buckle. Who would not want that? 

My midwifery training was undertaken at Ayrshire and Arran Health Board, close to the docks and the pubs Billy Connolly frequented before he became ‘a famous person’.  The hospital was known as Irvine Central, responsible for patients from Isle or Arran and Mull of Kintyre.

You worked in some fascinating places.  Can you tell us more about these?

I worked in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates starting in 1977 in a hotel that was being converted into a hospital for women. 

Women of 68 nationalities birthed here and were supported by obstetric teams from Europe, Russia, China, the Philippines, Australia, Africa, India, Pakistan and the Middle East. 

Postnatal midwifery support was provided by Korean general-trained nurses with extra studies for an obstetric certificate. 

I then went back to the UK and worked at Forresterhill Hospital.

You also worked in Port Moresby?

I worked in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea starting in 1979 in a time where there were no mobiles or GPs and ‘rascals’ a plenty. 

During this time, I joined the Defence Force as a civilian, working with three Australian Defence Force doctors and a senior midwife. 

All military personnel and families came to the compound, and I was allocated to births and looking after sick babies and toddlers. 

Where did you go after this?

In 1981, the desert was calling me again and I went back to Abu Dhabi. 

Abu Dhabi was growing fast and Al Corniche was bursting at the seams with 4 000 births that year! 

I initially worked in the Special Care Neonatal Unit which had 44 beds, 6 ventilated cots and 8 high dependency cots.  

I then returned to the birth suite and became unit manager. From there, I had the opportunity to be part of a commissioning team looking to increase to 10 000 births a year – this introduced me to a new level of management. 

By 1984 I was responsible for the birth suite, the high dependency unit, the special care neonatal unit and the post C-section ward.

We are incredibly lucky to have you on our midwifery team.  When did you come back to Australia?

I came back to Australia in 1987 when my daughter was a one year old – I needed to spend more time with her and we were excited to be accepted to immigrate to Australia. 

I started here when it was still Mercy Hospital in 2002 and spent five years as a Clinical Facilitator for midwifery students enrolled at Edith Cowan University and I have been here ever since!