A journey and a dream.

This is a post about the journey of my dream. A journey I feel you are all a part of. Your constant love and support means more than I can express.

Making the move to the Far North of Australia to work in communities with higher populations of First Nations Australian families, isn’t a decision that I made on my own accord. Before starting my final year of university, I went on a life changing trip. I’ve travelled overseas many times, but this was a path altering experience in regards to my midwifery journey, which also had many flow on effects in other areas of my life.
During a time of deep spiritual journeying I had a dream. The vision was of a pregnant First Nations woman sitting in the desert. It also came with a deep knowing and assurance that working with First Nations families would form a large part of my midwifery.
To some it may not make sense to make such life altering decisions such as moving to the other end of the country (and later living in a remote town where I knew no one) based on a dream. But another experience during that same trip reassured me that there was no reason why I should feel the need to question this was my path.
Whilst I was in Cambodia I spent time in remote villages in the Far North East, an area called Mondulkiri. This area is home to a marginalised Indigenous group called the Bunong people. I was fortunate enough to spend time with women and traditional midwives from this community hearing their stories. I learnt that traditional healers in their culture learnt their knowledge and abilities through dreams. Despite all of the traditional midwives in the area being over 65yrs old, there was no wavered doubt that there would be other midwives to take on their role within the community in the future, despite no one directly learning from these experienced women.

I’ve always had a dream to own a birth centre and offer home birth services. The research is supportive of this model of care having improved outcomes for women and babies who do not have confounding medical concerns. I have seen the difference in experiences and the flow on benefits for women and babies born in these settings.
I am lucky enough to be supporting women to birth at home in my current role. But there is no doubt that due to the health system in Australia, access to these services are mostly limited to a cohort of women who can afford to pay for it. Mostly, higher educated, financially well off, Caucasian women. I love working with women from any culture or background. I have had such rich experiences due to the diverse exposure I have been fortunate to have to different cultures. Especially when it comes to pregnancy, birth and parenting as this is such an intimate cultural time. But this means that at the moment my chance of supporting First Nations Australian women is unfortunately low.
My future birth centre will be one that is culturally safe and accessible for First Nations families. These women and their babies have significantly poorer outcomes compared with their Caucasian sisters. I discussed this disparity during a podcast episode on The Red Tent Birth podcast, which you can listen to Here if you want to find out more.
I don’t believe high quality, individualised care should be limited to those with the financial means to access it. It goes against the supportive community philosophy of midwifery and care.
This is a dream I have been working towards for many years and still have a long road to travel. One I am fuelled to continue on because of the amazing, inspiring women I have met and supported so far. So please know, that when you book our services, not only do you receive heartfelt support and knowledge, you are contributing to a dream, of all women accessing life-changing midwifery care.
If you are interested in learning about what services, we offer please check them out Here. All of our services are individualised so please connect with us if what you need from us is not listed.
I appreciate all your support, following us on Instagram helps us help more women and we are always so grateful for your encouraging feedback.