2010 Finalist - Karli Millar

Name: Karli Millar
School : James Cook University
Major: Nursing and Midwifery

In Australia, almost all women give birth in a hospital. While there are a great many women who would like to do so at home, or in a birth centre under the care of midwives, the laws and available services currently make it all but impossible.

In my area, a new birthing centre opened last year. It is staffed completely by midwives, providing holistic, woman-centred care to women with low-risk pregnancies. I want, with all my heart, to become a midwife in a centre like that one.

I firmly believe that women should be allowed choice in this extremely important life event. I believe their partners and families should be actively involved, if they wish to be. I feel it is of critical importance that women be able to decide where and how they wish to bring a new life into the world, rather than have the whole process be medicalised to the point of birth being considered a medical emergency rather than a completely natural process.

Since the degree I am studying is a combined Nursing and Midwifery qualification, I will be very well equipped to travel to rural communities and live and work in places where there are no nurses or midwives at all. My long-term goal is to open a birth centre, like the one in my home town, somewhere there are no other facilities. I want to be able to provide excellent health care to people who have no other way of accessing what should be such basic services. As a registered nurse, I will be able to provide basic health care to the community at large, and as a registered midwife, I will be able to provide assistance to birthing women in their home towns, so they will not be required to travel to the cities to give birth in a hospital. In some rural towns, the nearest hospital is eight hours away, and it is unreasonable to expect a woman to leave her partner and children behind because she must travel to give birth, sometimes up to a month before the child is born. When she returns home, often the very next day, there are no nurses or midwives (and definitely no doctors) there to assist her with any troubles she might have, or follow up on any issues that might be raised.

I am one of the first students to be enrolled in the brand new Bachelor of Nursing Sciences – Bachelor of Midwifery dual degree at James Cook University. Graduating from this course will allow me to provide excellent care and choices to women who would otherwise be unable to receive them. I feel that my qualification and goals will assist me in becoming a valuable, contributing member of society in general, and especially to the people of the rural areas I am able to practice in. I want to make a difference, to make the world a better place, and I really feel that this is a great way to do so.