Meet the Australian midwife of the year fighting for regional women's health

Australian Community Media

Endorsed midwife Vanessa Page has helped more than 260 at-risk women through pregnancy with a one-a-kind program for expecting mums, but her regional program faces imminent closure without $120,000 in urgent funding.

Transcript

00:00Unfortunately in Australia, particularly in regional and rural areas, finding

00:06access to a midwife is really hard. In a health system in crisis, who is looking

00:11out for those often left behind? Here in regional Australia, one midwife is

00:15standing between hundreds of vulnerable women and the collapse of their care.

00:20Vanessa Page's endorsed midwife care program has guided more than 260 at-risk

00:26mothers through pregnancy, from Indigenous women to refugees and those

00:31facing financial hardship. With social disadvantage comes clinical risk, so these

00:36women inevitably are going to be complex and have a higher risk pregnancy. Vanessa

00:41provided specialised support to 260 marginalised women through their

00:45pregnancy, but the program now faces closure unless Gateway Health can secure

00:51the $120,000 in funding. It's really devastating. It's been one of the hardest

00:56decisions I've had to make in my career, just particularly knowing the impact not

01:01only on Vanessa, but also on the women that come through our program and the

01:05families that we've been able to support. I just think about other women as well and

01:09how much they've been a struggle without the service in place. To be honest, if

01:13there's not a service available that caters for their complexity and their social

01:17circumstances, then I believe a lot of women will end up having ad hoc

01:22pregnancy care, which will ultimately result in adverse outcomes.

01:26Despite being recognised as 2025 Australian Midwife of the Year, without that

01:31financial lifeline, Vanessa's program will be cancelled and she unfortunately has

01:36already started this process. I've had the high of winning Australian

01:40Midwife of the Year and now I'm riding a low whereby a program that I've set up

01:45from scratch and I'm absolutely passionate about maybe ending.

01:48I'm gutted as, and young mums as well, young first-time mums with nowhere else to go.

01:53Having someone to talk to, someone to listen to you, it's just so important and I

01:58just, I think about those women and it makes me sad that they'll have nowhere to go and

02:01no one to talk to.

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