I am a proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait woman of the Bindal and Wagadagum tribes. Becoming a registered midwife on Thursday Island will allow me to evoke change and introduce traditional pregnancy and birthing customs. My passion for midwifery stems from my own unpleasant experiences whilst in the care of the public healthcare system. I am highly motivated to create change to ensure my daughters and future generations do not encounter the current healthcare system in the manner I have.

I am contributing to Indigenous health by simply becoming a registered healthcare professional and practicing in my community. I am the first in my family to pursue a high education and the only student currently in my community studying a healthcare discipline. My presence in the maternity unit has already made a difference with an increase in woman’s engagement with the service. I hope to further extend my influence to the outer islands and the Northern Peninsula Area.

A goal of mine is to create an Indigenous friendly maternity environment and service on Thursday Island. I plan to pitch the idea of Indigenous themed birthing suites; the Red Dust suite to represent the Northern Peninsular Area landscape and Malu (Ocean Water) Suite for Torres Strait representation. These suites will be a sacred safe space fro women’s business in the hospital to allow women to feel connected to the land and their ancestors during their labour and birth. This may potentially decrease medical intervention, instrumental births, inductions and cesarean rates. Further promoting normal labour and birth mimicking the birthing process prior to colonization.

My long-term vision for the Thursday Island maternity services is to develop culturally appropriate perinatal education resources, workshops and classes. These programs will be focused on women of this region specifically, cater to their specific community needs and be delivered in community. The Torres Strait Islands and Northern Peninsula area are separated into clusters and communities, all have their own language dialect, customs, traditions and beliefs. These programs will deliver all pregnancy birth and postnatal information in native language and utilise community female elders and Aunties to further encourage engagement and provide information. My aim is to assist in the close the gap campaign and increase life quality and expectancy for all community members through maternity care.

I had the opportunity to complete core curriculum subjects in earlier years throughout my course, hence why I am only completing two subjects this semester. I was not required to complete any subjects in semester 1 2024 as I have met the requirements and passed all relevant prerequisite subjects. 2023 semester 2 was a challenging semester.

The Inquiring Midwife subject I found difficult. The content was heavy and thorough in analytical research methodologies, deciphering scholar articles and uncovering worthy evidenced based research. I did, however, find it interesting and developed new skills during this subject. The essay for assessment task two was one of the longest essays I had ever completed during my course. The research, preparation and several drafts were time consuming and took twice the
amount of time to complete than any other essay. I was grateful to have a supportive tutor and perseverance to complete and pass the subject.

The last assessment was a five-minute PowerPoint presentation via zoom, my chosen subject was on conception and pregnancy 12 months post Bariatric surgery and the effects on fetal growth. My findings were interesting and has informed my personal practice as a Midwife. The skills I’ve learnt from this subject will have an ever-lasting impact on my practice.