Bachelor of Midwifery

Take part in the most significant event in most people’s lives by training for a rewarding and challenging career as a midwife.

The Bachelor of Midwifery will combine your talent and dedication with the skills you need to provide holistic care for a woman and her child during pregnancy, childbirth, and early infancy. You will gain a grounding in midwifery theory and practice, primary healthcare, women’s health and psychosocial sciences. You will be equipped to work in multi-disciplinary teams and in partnership with women to contribute to healthier outcomes for mother and baby.

Placements in this degree give you the opportunity to follow the journey of women throughout their pregnancies and support them and their diverse needs to experience the full range of midwifery practice.

Graduates of this program will be able to register and practice as midwives across a range of settings, including public and private hospitals, clinics and as midwifery educators.

Career Opportunities

Registered midwives may practice midwifery in various capacities in public and private hospitals and community, maternity and neonatal healthcare settings in urban, rural and remote areas. They can practice as group practice midwives, clinical midwifery consultants, midwifery educators, midwifery unit managers, community midwives, researchers, and as independent midwives (with further training). They can work in any state of Australia and in New Zealand.

Professional Recognition

The Bachelor of Midwifery is approved by the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia and provides the necessary qualification for graduates to be eligible to register and practice as a midwife in Australia.

Further training is required to work as a privately practicing midwife.

[Please note: In order to register to practice, the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency [AHPRA]’s standards for the English language must be met. See the AHPRA website for further information.]

Professional Placement

Students are required to undertake about 1,000 hours of supervised placements that will enable them to focus on woman-centred care and provide continuity-of-care with women throughout their pregnancies; attend antenatal and postnatal assessments/visits with women; provide direct care to women during labour; assist women during birth; support women and their babies with diverse needs across pregnancy, labour and birth, and the postnatal period; and experience the full scope of midwifery practice.

Please be aware labor and birth can be unpredictable and occur at any time of the day or night. Therefore the continuity-of-care component in the program requires you to be ‘on call’. The professional experience rostered placement may occur ‘away’ from your campus and place of residence. Students are responsible for any cost incurred for travel and accommodation.

Professional experience placements require students to fulfill certain pre-requisites prior to attending any placements (e.g. a working with children check and National Police Certificate). Prior to applying for this course, please consider the important information regarding these requirements.

Major Areas of Study

Studies include:

• Anatomy and physiology

• Midwifery theory and practice

• Primary health care

• Psychosocial sciences

• Women’s health.

Assessment methods

Students complete a wide variety of assessment items during the course including written exams, oral exams, academic writing, clinical and practical exams.

Teaching methods

The course is underpinned by an innovative, experiential learning curriculum focusing on woman-centered care in practice. The course features a variety of clinical and community experiences, which will expose students to the varied aspects of midwifery practice resulting in graduates able to function to the full scope of contemporary midwifery practice.