Midwifery is seen as sustainable practice. The underlying philosophy of Midwifery is aligned with sustainability. Midwifery promotes low resource use and minimising unnecessary intervention.  Midwifery practice is about community based primary health, strengthening family relationships, health promotion etc. To some extent, the rise of sustainability is seen to be giving credence to the Midwifery approach (Davies 2007).

The school has taken the decision to integrate sustainability, starting with a new foundation course: BMSD107 Sustainable Development.  Sustainability is then integrated into all second year courses with specific objectives in each course. In practice courses there is an added focus to advocate practices such as breast feeding, health maintenance, education of whanau, birthing in primary maternity facilities or home birth etc. In third year, sustainability is applied to midwifery practice via a course, 'Sustainable Midwifery Practice'. This course picks up sustainable practice in terms of managing a small business, sustaining self in practice and sustainable practices in midwifery practice. The challenge is in promoting sustainability and midwifery as a primary health model in a context where medicalisation dominates the maternity services.

There will be significant changes to programme next year with a new programme design and delivery model which is about making midwifery education sustainable for both students and midwifery staff; it is about keeping students in their home locations and utilising local maternity facilities and resources as much as possible. Working in collaboration with CPIT will ensure best use of resources which are shared.

• Sustainability is an underlying philosophy of the practice of midwifery – normal birth with minimal intervention. Promoting the use of minimal intervention birthing environment will leave high intervention facilities for people who really need them.
• Current programmes have an integrated approach to sustainability – eg. promotion of breast-feeding for health and financial reasons, but not necessarily named sustainability because it’s integral to practice.
• The school has developed a new curriculum (see below) in collaboration with CPIT and are currently awaiting formal approval by ITPQ and the Midwifery Council of New Zealand. The programme focuses on a new delivery model to satellite areas including Invercargill, Central Otago, West Coast, and Marlborough, as well as Dunedin and Christchurch. The programme includes a mixture of online teaching and inclusion of local midwives to support students. The hope is that trained midwives will stay in local areas.
• Collaboration with CPIT is an attempt to be sustainable, and should have a positive impact on workload and efficiency. We are attempting to take the programme throughout New Zealand, encouraging other institutions to look at the delivery model.
• The new curriculum takes a more obvious approach including two papers that are specific to sustainable practice. The principles will be embedded into all courses and integrated into the graduate profile of all courses.
• The school is currently working with Barry Law (Canterbury University) on staff development.

BMSD107 Sustainable Development
Development of the first year course, BMSD107 Sustainable Development, is under way with staff from OP and CPIT collaborating on the content and development of resources.
The first year course introduces students to the principles of sustainability by focusing on the interrelated characteristics of social, environmental and economic activities and systems.  It also explores the contribution that midwifery can make to sustainability by modeling less exploitative practices in order to support families and their communities in sustaining their health and well-being.

We aim to cover:

• The degradation of natural environments, the depletion of natural resources, biodiversity and climate change
• Human poverty and war, particularly how these impact on women's and children's lives and well-being
• Issues around consumption and the link with politics of food
• Consumption of water and materials that might support a midwifery practice
• Counting women into sustainable development
• The new values for sustainability - the Earth Chapter.  Identifying the principles that are important to midwifery
• Attitudes and values around different cultural perspective on birth and also about the issues surrounding birth defects, natural selection, moral and ethical choices parents might make in relation to the broad issue of sustainability
• Local sustainability issues: sustainable households
• Professional and personal sustainability for midwives - lifelong learning; personal and professional ethics
• Exploring a contested topic (student choice) - safe motherhood initiatives, disposable vs. cloth nappies, environmental toxins and fertility.

Quicklinks

• Student webmail
• Staff webmail
• Send me information
• How to Apply