Graduate midwifery programme

Te Whatu Ora Capital, Coast and Hutt Valley offer supportive Graduate Midwifery Programmes and exciting opportunities for midwives starting their careers in our region.

We provide maternity care to people requiring primary and secondary level care across the district and tertiary level obstetric care at Wellington Regional Hospital. All of our units are Baby-friendly Hospital (BFH) accredited.

Our midwives provide safe, effective, and compassionate care across the range of midwifery services, including people with uncomplicated pregnancies and births as well as those requiring complex medical and obstetric interventions.

We collaborate with community Lead Maternity Carer (LMC) midwives, obstetric doctors, nurses and multiple other disciplines to achieve the best experience.Our Graduate Midwifery Programmes run for 54 weeks. Their purpose is to help you develop and consolidate your midwifery knowledge within a supportive environment, working across the scope of practice.

The programmes begin with two weeks generic orientation to Wellington Regional Hospital or Hutt Hospital, orientation to the Womens Health Service (Wellington) or Hutt Maternity, and then a series of compulsory study days and core competencies.

Midwifery First Year of Practice (MFYP)

Each graduate offered a position on the graduate midwifery programme will be supported to participate in the Midwifery First Year of Practice (MFYP) programme. You are welcome to apply in your final year of undergraduate study.

We offer graduate midwives 64 hours per fortnight (0.8 FTE) rostered and rotating shifts to allow time to complete the mandatory requirements of the MFYP programme.

Download our handout here which gives you more information on this programme.

At the end of this 54-week programme you will:

  • have the opportunity to change your working or rostered hours while retaining your permanent contract
  • submit your portfolio for the Quality and Leadership Programme.

Throughout the programme you will consolidate your midwifery knowledge and practical skills within a supportive environment across all of our maternity services. 

The Midwifery First Year of Practice Programme is a compulsory, national programme for all New Zealand registered midwifery graduates, irrespective of workplace setting.

All our graduate midwives rotate throughout the maternity services across our campuses: 

In Wellington:

  • Two week non-clinical period of orientation to the hospital and Te Whatu Ora region as well as the Women’s Health Service 
  • Community Midwifery Team – supernumerary for one week, with one day spent with the community breastfeeding team.
  • Women’s Clinics – one week supernumerary placement in the Acute Assessment Unit, Diabetic Clinic and Maternal Fetal Medicine.
  • Kenepuru primary birthing facility – spend two weeks working alongside the core midwife.
  • Antenatal pod – one week supernumerary followed by eight weeks clinical placement.
  • Postnatal – one week supernumerary followed by 16 weeks clinical placement.
  • Birthing Suite – four weeks supernumerary followed by 20 weeks clinical placement.
In Hutt: 
  • Two week non-clinical period of orientation to the hospital and Te Whatu Ora region, and Hutt Maternity services 
  • Birthing Suite – four weeks supernumerary placement 
  • Maternity Ward – two weeks supernumerary placement 
  • Community Midwifery Team – one week supernumerary placement 
  • Maternity Assessment Unit and Early Pregnancy Clinic – one week supernumerary placement 
  • Outpatient Antenatal Clinic (including Diabetic Clinic) – one week supernumerary placement 
  • Theatre Midwifery Team – one week supernumerary placement 
  • 12 weeks to consolidate skills with clinical coach support in Birthing Suite 

  • 12 weeks to consolidate skills with clinical coach support in Maternity Ward 

A clinical midwife educator is responsible for organising and facilitating the graduate midwifery programme. Each clinical area has experienced midwives who will be assigned to support the graduate midwife during her initial orientation period, during each rotation and will continue to support the graduate in their day-to-day practice.

Study days

Meeting your Midwifery Council requirements is easy as we also offer regular midwifery education including:

  • Midwifery Emergency Skills Refresher Day
  • Fetal Surveillance Education Programme
  • Breastfeeding
  • Epidural workshop
  • Violence Intervention Programme.

Join our midwifery forums dedicated to practice and resilience; educational multidisciplinary meetings such as, reviews, research presentations and current topics of interest; and attend micro-teaching throughout the year.

We work closely with Otago and Victoria Universities, and Otago Polytechnic. Education in our clinical areas is further enabled by our Midwifery Educators, Clinical Coaches and Clinical Midwife Managers – so support is always available.

Ongoing support

Our supportive teams nurture new graduates and one another, guided by the Director of Midwifery, Associate Director of Midwifery and Midwife Managers. Our obstetric teams are respectful and collaborative. We all work alongside our LMC colleagues and nurses to provide the best care for parents and babies. Each area and all shifts are led by a Clinical Midwife Manager (CMM).

We are well supported by our amazing clinical midwife specialists, lactation consultants, social workers, hearing screeners, administrators and a variety of other health professionals.

We work closely with our busy Neonatal Intensive Care (NICU), Special Care Baby (SCBU) and Gynaecology teams.

The teams across our district are here to provide excellent care for whānau, and to embrace the diversity and culture of our community.

Thank you for considering joining our maternity team. We are keen to grow you as midwives of the future. We love supporting all midwives as they experience the joy and challenges of midwifery.

Last updated 19 July 2023.